It was in Montreal that the Coroner’s investigation opened on Monday on the death of Normand Meunier, this quadriplegic sixty -year -old who asked for medical aid to die, in March 2024, after having suffered serious bed wounds.
Normand Meunier’s spouse Sylvie Brosseau will be called upon to testify within the framework of this three -week public inquiry, ordered by the Minister of Public Security last June and chaired by Coroner Dave Kimpton.
The loss of a human life, when it is understood that death could have been avoided, remains a tragedy for loved ones as well as for society.
For Ms. Brosseau, it is important that people with a spinal cord lesion, as was the case for her spouse, receive appropriate care when hospitalized.
Since Normand has become quadriplegic, I have been fighting.
However, she says that Nothing has changed yet
Since a fatal bed wound has led to the death of his spouse.
Open in full screen
Normand Meunier in his residence in Saint-Colomban, Quebec, some time before his death. This 66 -year -old quadriplegic man suffered from “medullary injuries” following a fall. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
This trucker, A 6 -feet 4 inch and 300 pound gentleman
was walking around
. But in 2022, he became paralyzed with arms and legs. From this moment, his state of Health, already very altered, was aggravated by a series of pressure wounds – commonly called bed wounds – which made him suffer to the point where he obtained medical aid to die on March 29, 2024.
The coroner’s investigation aims to clarify the circumstances of this sad story, so that others do not undergo the same fate.
However, according to the information obtained by Radio-Canada, the complaint commissioner Cisss Laurentides has intervened in recent months in another pressure wound file. The patient, Nicole Mongeon, a lady loss of autonomy, also received care at the Saint-Jérôme hospital.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, more than 3,700 patients end up with a pressure wound each year in hospitals and CHSLD Quebec.
A wound several centimeters in diameter
At the public hearing on Monday, the last two years of the life of Normand Meunier have been reviewed in the detail menu: ultra-specialized care provided sometimes at the Saint-Jérôme hospital center, sometimes at the Sacré-Coeur-de-Montréal hospital, or even at the Gingras-Lindsay-de-Montréal rehabilitation institute or at home with the competition CLSC.
Open in full screen
Nailed to his bed since 2022, Normand Meunier needed an alternating air pressure mattress to avoid pressure wounds. Same mattress was never provided to him during the four days he spent in the hospital emergencies in January 2024. (Archives photo)
Photo : Ivanoh Demers
At the Rehabilitation Institute, the collaboration of Mr. Meunier and his spouse with the nursing staff was described as copy
Monday in front of the coroner. Both Sylvie Brosseau and her companion had become experts of its condition
to him.
And expert help, Normand Meunier was needed: for example, in a sitting position, he had to every half hour to fall over
In his wheelchair for 90 seconds, just to alleviate the pressure points on his body. If he was able to switch in one direction, he was unable to do it in the other, for lack of force in the shoulders.
In January 2024, Mr. Meunier, suffering for the third time in as many months from a respiratory virus, spent 96 hours at the Saint-Jérôme hospital center. This stay in the emergency room on a stretcher, rather than on a bed adapted as its state requested it, caused it a gaping wound of several centimeters at the buttocks.
Admittedly, it was not at his first bed wound. But this one …
Horrible? Yes. He had no buttocks.
A lack of follow -up and coordination
Open in full screen
On the first day of the Coroner survey on Monday, a program chef from the Gingras-Lindsay-de-Montréal rehabilitation institute (where Normand Meunier stayed) testified that the latter and his spouse collaborate in a “exemplary” manner with the staff of this establishment. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
For Sylvie Brosseau, her spouse was all the more victim negligence
that his case was known to the medical team of the Saint-Jérôme hospital center.
In her quest for answers, Mr. Meunier’s spouse has been supported since the start by the spinal cord and motor skills team (Memo-Québec).
The director general of this organization, Walter Zelaya, says that deaths like that of the ex-sectarian should not happen, Because we have everything you need, knowledge and expertise
To treat these people.
Or, often
it lacks la coordination
et followers
Adequate, he notes. The consequences can be terrible, because A pressure wound that is not adequately treated can lead to death
.
And Walter Zelaya adds: What is the point of the company and the families of the patients are involved as much in the rehabilitation of sick people if the care protocol is not respected? If there is negligence? If these people come to suffer even more?
work on a team
Open in full screen
Sylvie Brosseau claims that no improvement has been made in the care provided for people with spinal injuries since her spouse had to claim medical aid to die, as he suffered from bed wounds. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
Sylvie Brosseau, she has appeased to the idea that this investigation brings a form ofculmination
: I hope it will change things
.
But a public inquiry is not intended to carry accusations, as explained by Coroner Kpton in his introduction message. Its mandate is to make recommendations.
Ms. Brosseau has a whole found: They will have to work as a team
she pleads, speaking of those who, in the health system, intervene with heavy and complex cases like that of his deceased spouse. “Everyone has their department,” it makes no sense.
It is a protocol that must be followed.
With information from Mathieu Papillon
