Montreal family says gold was stolen out of mother's dentures during hospital visit

MONTREAL -- Selina Constantine’s family thought it was kind when a nurse at the Jewish General Hospital offered the 92-year-old a special perk during a stay at the hospital.

The nurse offered to clean her dentures. The problem was that the dentures included two gold teeth—and those never made it back to her.

The Constantines are now furious at the hospital, which has told them it won’t investigate unless it gets a copy of the patient’s will.

“It’s theft,” said Natalie Fraser, Constantine’s granddaughter. “If you work anywhere, a company, a store, you would get first fired if you steal something.”

Selina Constantine spent a week at the Jewish General in mid-April. She has since passed away.

Partway through the week, however, a nurse suddenly offered to the clean the dentures, says her daughter, Norma Constantine.

“It was strange, becase she was there since the Tuesday, and all of a sudden she said ‘I’m going to clean your dentures for you,’” she recalls.

Her mom said “fine.” She couldn’t have imagined how it would turn out, her daughter said.

“She expected her to clean the dentures and not steal the gold and pop it in her mouth like nothing happened,” Constantine says.

When the dental plate was returned, the gold had been removed. 

The gold wasn’t there as some sort of status symbol. Selina was from Guyana, one place with a tradition of using gold in dentures as a way to make them more comfortable.

So removing those parts would have made them uncomfortable for her, Constantine says.

Her mother was also a nurse herself for many years, though not at the same hospital. She was upset at the theft in the last weeks of her life.

The family filed a complaint with the hospital, but after Selina died, the family was told that it needs to submit a copy of her will to continue with the investigation.

The Jewish General says that when an item is reported lost or stolen, there’s an investigation and police may be called. But the hospital said that under the Health Act, if the patient with the complaint dies, only the bearer of their will has the right to pursue the complaint.

The family thinks that hurdle is ridiculous and they say the will is “very personal” and they have no intention of sharing it.

“The claim was started before she passed, and now that she passed on May 4, all of a sudden [it’s] back and forth, back and forth,” said Natalie Fraser, Selina’s granddaughter. 

The family says that one of the worst parts, however, is how the experience has complicated a time when should have been able to simply grieve.