The family of a 64-year-old man who died in a hospital waiting room said lack of attention due to overcrowding contributed to his death at Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital two weeks ago.
Andre Desjardins was rushed by ambulance to the hospital on l'Assomption Blvd. on Sept. 30. A diabetic with high blood pressure, Desjardins had been unable to eat or drink properly for at least two months when he was brought in to the emergency room, his family said.
The ER was overcrowded on that date by 43 per cent.
Therese Desjardins, the man's sister, said the nurse didn't have time to check on him.
"She said ‘We don't have time, sir. Stay in your chair," she said.
Therese Desjardins and her sister Monique said they tried multiple times over seven hours in the waiting room to at least get their brother, who was too weak to sit, a stretcher.
"Get me some help, or he'll fall," said Monique, recounting the event.
They say the nurse brusquely shooed them away, a version of events confirmed by Nicole Arsenault, a stranger sitting next to Desjardins in the waiting room.
"They were telling his sister not to cry or else they would take her out with the security guard - it was awful," said Arseneault.
With strangers helping to prop him up, Arseneault said Desjardins collapsed onto the floor of the waiting room.
"Staff rushed over and were ripping his shirt open. It was horrifying. i have nightmares about it now," said Monique Desjardins, who said at that point, the staff found the patient a stretcher.
"There was a 10 year old girl - not sure the age -- and she was there and she was a witness - to what happened – Mr. Desjardins died right in front of her," explained Arseneault.
The hospital declined to comment on the case, but said it had launched an internal investigation into the incident, and will reveal the results to the family later this week.
