The family of an 86-year-old woman found dead on the floor at the Lakeshore General Hospital in 2021 is suing the regional health authority on Montreal’s West Island for $1 million.
Candida Macarine was found dead in a room at the ER on Feb. 27, 2021, one day after being admitted to the hospital due to respiratory distress.
Hospital staff had told the family she died of cardiac arrest, but allegedly failed to mention she was found on the floor of an isolation room that had been deemed problematic. The lawsuit alleges that staff “purposely and voluntarily concealed critical information to the family.”
The CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, overseeing the Lakeshore General Hospital, had issued an apology to the family a month after Macarine’s death, saying it had “incomplete communications” with the family.
The lawsuit is seeking a total of $1 million from the CIUSSS: $100,000 for each of Macarine’s eight surviving children and $100,000 for each of the families of two of her deceased children.
An ER doctor and a nurse at the hospital are also named in the lawsuit as defendants.
The allegations of the lawsuit focus on the flaws the family says were present in Macarine’s care, including the failure to check on her every 15 minutes, the failure to adequately address two critical test results they say should have been red flags to send her to the ICU, and the failure of nurses to notice or react to audio and visual alarms that should have alerted them to Macarine’s declining condition.
The family also alleges there were contradictory notes from staff as to the exact time a code blue was launched and when Macarine was found dead, raising questions about whether staff were slow to start CPR.
In the more than three years since her death, Macarine’s children have been searching for answers and solace, pushing for a coroner’s investigation.
A September 2022 coroner’s report said Macarine likely died naturally of a heart attack. It stopped short of alleging neglect by staff.
Two months later, the Quebec coroner’s office rejected a request by Macarine’s family to reopen the investigation. The family claimed the coroner failed to correctly look at all the medical information at her disposal.
While the Macarines were initially pleased to see the Quebec government launch an independent investigation into the emergency room, in June 2023, they said they were still angry at the lack of answers.
The family is expected to speak out on the lawsuit with a press conference at the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations on May 9.