Family wants new investigation into Filipino mother’s death after accessing hospital records

"My mom was neglected there," says Gilda Macarine, of her 86-year-old mother, Candida, found dead on a hospital floor in Feb. 2021. Her children are calling for a new coroner's inquiry, after accessing hospital records. Alyssia Rubertucci reports.

By News Staff

The family of an 86-year-old woman who died at a Montreal hospital last year is calling on the Quebec coroner’s office to order a new investigation after accessing her medical records.

BACKGROUND: Montreal family unsatisfied with coroner’s report into death of 86-year-old Filipino mother in hospital

Candida Macarine was admitted to the Lakeshore General Hospital due to respiratory distress on Feb. 26, 2021. She was found dead on the floor by hospital staff in the early hours of the next morning.

The family was initially told Macarine had died of a cardiac arrest, only finding out more details through a news report more than a week later.

On Sept. 14 – nearly 19 months later – a three-page report by coroner Amélie Lavigne said Macarine likely died naturally of a heart attack. It stopped short of alleging neglect by staff.

“Despite the controversy surrounding the circumstances of my mother’s death, my initial reaction, if you read the report, is just that she’s not really digging more into this case,” said her son Emmanuel Macarine.

Now her children want Quebec’s chief coroner to investigate further after accessing the hospital records that were examined by Lavigne. They say she failed to correctly look at all the medical information at her disposal.

“The coroner did not examine Dr. Garbor’s note (the attending doctor), saying my mother spoke no English, no French, and this is not true. She spoke English, but she did not have her hearing aid that night. This raises the question as to how they communicated with her during her five-hour stay at the hospital and how they treated her.”

“What happened to the blood gas test results?” added Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR). “Were they taken into consideration by the treating physicians and the attending nurses? And how come in none of those professionals’ notes the blood test results were mentioned? And thirdly, even after the blood test results were made available, what did the staff do or not do? That could have aggravated her medical condition to the point where basically by 2 a.m., she was almost at the point of no return.”


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Macarine’s daughter Gilda is convinced neglect played a role in her mother’s death, and she wants accountability.

“For us, we’re still grieving until now,” she said. “But those people who were there from that incident, they’re just walking. They working as if nothing happened.

“When I go to to my work, I will save these elderly people every day during my shift. It keeps coming back to me. I’m taking care of this elderly people. When my mom… neglect was neglect there.”

The Quebec coroner’s office said in a statement: “The Chief Coroner, Me Pascale Descary, will examine and rigorously analyze any request from the family as soon as possible. The Coroner’s Office will not comment further at this time.”

—With files from Alyssia Rubertucci

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