The family of an 86-year-old Filipino grandmother 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 family learned of the circumstances of her death through a news report.
The lawsuit alleges that staff “purposely and voluntarily concealed critical information to the family.”
Two of Macarine’s children will speak out about the lawsuit at a press conference on Thursday at the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
“For three years, the family struggled to get the facts straight about Ms. Macarine’s conditions in her final hours at the hospital,” says a press release from CRARR. “They encountered roadblocks from the hospital and problems with the coroner’s inquiry that sidestepped key issues. Many questions were left unanswered, including the identity of the nurses on duty at the ER on the night Ms. Macarine died.”
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 the nurses at the hospital who were in charge of the ER the night she was admitted 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.
CityNews reached out to the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal for comment but did not hear back.