The MUHC is looking into the care it offered an indigenous woman who left the hospital without treatment.
Kimberley Gloade entered the emergency room in February 2016 but left before she saw a doctor.
Her family said Gloade left the hospital because she was told she had to pay $1,400 for medical care.
Gloade had been homeless for a time, and had her RAMQ card stolen with her purse at a laundromat.
By law the MUHC is forced to advise patients that without proof of medical insurance they can be billed. Something officials say happens eight to ten times a day, or 3,000 times a year.
The 42-year-old was seen by a nurse who ordered blood work and was then told to sit in the waiting room until a doctor would see her -- but instead she left.
"We welcome people around the world who don't have medical cards and do treat them in an emergency fashion. Why should this person have not been treated as such?" said Brunet.
Gloade died two months later of cirrhosis -- permanent damage to the liver caused over a long period of time, by alcohol abuse.
Cirrhosis often has no signs until the liver is extensively damaged and the only cure is a liver transplant.
A coroner's report said treatment at the MUHC would not have helped Gloade, but said someone should, at least, have explained to Gloade that her liver was failing.
Gloade's family reportedly believes stigma or racism may have played a role. The head of the native women's shelter of Montreal says if it did, it wouldn't be a first.
"I have heard such horrible stories about a woman that brings in a baby, and her baby's hand is blue and hosptials will say 'oh well you Indians you tie up your babies too tight in the tekenagan or the crade board and sent her home'," said Nakuset.
The MUHC is investigating the incident to make sure it doesn't happen again. Officials say they have developed programs to be more culturally sensitive to their indigenous patients.
