Family demanding answers after Montreal woman dies following routine surgery at Royal Victoria Hospital
Posted December 23, 2024 1:50 pm.
Last Updated December 23, 2024 4:58 pm.
The family of a 33-year-old Montreal woman wants answers about what led to her death following a routine surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Joëlle Audrey Glan went into cardiac arrest during a procedure to remove a fibroma from her uterus on Aug. 6, 2021. She died three weeks later after being taken off life support.
“We have to keep going in that fight because we want to get these answers for her,” said Glan’s husband Yannick Hébert.
What led to Glan’s cardiac arrest is at the centre of a civil case to find out what exactly happened during her surgery.
Four months after Glan passed away, Hébert received an anonymous letter alleging Glan’s death was the result of the surgeon not stopping the operation after too much liquid had been pumped into her body as part of the procedure.
“Basically it said that there was too much liquid going into her body and she absorbed too much liquid,” Hébert said. “And at around three or two litres, they had to stop the surgery, but the surgeon did not stop the surgery. And such a surplus would be a well-known risk to causing a patient’s death. And then it ended with the rest of the story is a camouflage.”
The lawyer representing Glan’s family alleges neglect and misconduct happened during the surgery and that the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) did not disclose important details, nor did they notify the coroner about Glan’s death.
“From the people who were present, it seemed very evident from the beginning that this happened as a result of a liquid deficit,” said Patrick Martin-Ménard, a medical lawyer with Ménard Martin Avocats. “This information was not provided to the family. They had to learn it through an anonymous letter and then they had to subsequently undertake legal procedures in order to have that information.”
Glan’s family is now suing the MUHC, the operating surgeon and the anesthesiologist for $1.4 million.
“A coroner called me, Jean Brochu, he was very, very nice to me,” Hébert recounted. “And it’s after talking to him that we then decided to try to get answers through the lawsuit because clearly we were not getting the answers we were supposed to.”
In a statement to CityNews, the MUHC said: “We understand how difficult this must be for the family, and we offer our deepest sympathies. As this matter is currently before the courts, we are unable to make any comments at this time.”
Added Martin-Ménard: “No amount of money will bring her back, but the family hopes through this, first of all, to get to the bottom of this, to get some form of accountability for what happened and also to make sure that something like this does not happen again.”
Glan and Hébert had been married for five years when she went in for the routine surgery, a procedure she undertook to have a child.
“She had everything that she ever wanted,” Hébert said. “The only thing that she really wanted and was making her sad was having a child. And that was the whole point of getting that surgery in the first place, for us getting a child. But yeah, she was just a great person, so nice, so kind, so smart. She was just wonderful.”
