The health authority for the Outaouais is reviewing the case of a child who died in the days after she was seen at the Gatineau Hospital for an asthma attack.
Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner is also investigating the girl’s death at CHEO, eastern Ontario’s children’s hospital in Ottawa.
But the mother of four-year-old Chloé Bélanger is raising concerns specifically about what happened in the hours after the family brought the girl to the Gatineau Hospital on March 13 when she experienced a severe asthma attack.
Alexandra Desjardins-Gunville said that while her daughter was seen by respiratory therapists and a doctor, the family was left alone for extended periods of time. She said they felt like they had to “beg” for further help until Bélanger went into what she was later told was cardio-respiratory arrest, had to be resuscitated and was transferred to CHEO, where she died on March 17.
“We’re talking about an asthma attack that could have been controlled much earlier,” Desjardins-Gunville said in French.
“No child should die from an asthma attack in a Canadian hospital,” she added. “It’s not like I arrived five minutes before it happened. It took three hours before the … cardio-respiratory arrest occurred.”
The health authority that oversees Gatineau Hospital declined to be interviewed and instead provided an emailed statement to Radio-Canada.
“We wish to offer our sincerest condolences to the family grieving the loss of this young child,” the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) said in French.
“[We are] taking this situation very seriously and [are] currently conducting a thorough review of the events surrounding this case.
“Out of respect for the family and due to obligations related to the confidentiality of personal information, we cannot comment further on this situation.”
Desjardins-Gunville said her daughter had already been hospitalized several times in January after contracting viruses including COVID-19. Her lungs were already weak and her asthma was difficult to control, Desjardins-Gunville said.
During each visit, the girl received care quickly and “with humanity and kindness. But not this time,” Desjardins-Gunville wrote in French about her March 13 experience at Gatineau Hospital.
“This time we were left alone, sitting in a room, feeling like we had to manage,” she added in a Facebook update posted four days after the girl’s death.
After waiting approximately 30 minutes in the emergency room, Desjardins-Gunville says Bélanger was seen by a respiratory therapist who administered asthma inhaler treatment.
According to Desjardins-Gunville, she and her daughter were then taken to a consultation room to wait for a doctor. About 10 minutes later, she asked the nurse on duty if the respiratory therapist could return to administer further treatments with the asthma inhaler, as she felt uncomfortable applying the puffs herself.
During previous hospital visits, “they never [left] us alone with the inhaler,” she said.
Desjardins-Gunville also feels some Gatineau Hospital staff failed to treat the family with compassion, including questioning the family’s choice to bring Bélanger to that hospital instead of CHEO. Desjardins-Gunville said she had been told by CHEO to take Bélanger to the nearest hospital in the case of an emergency.
“I live in Gatineau, literally three minutes from the hospital. Why would I go to CHEO?” Desjardins-Gunville asked in French.
When Desjardins-Gunville got angry and spoke too loudly, she said her daughter would get upset and her breathing would speed up.
“My job was to stay with her,” Desjardins-Gunville said.
As Bélanger’s condition worsened, the family did consider taking her to CHEO.
“At that moment, she’d been in a room for several hours. Her physical condition was such that she couldn’t breathe properly anymore. She was tired, red-faced, exhausted…. It’s like watching someone drown,” Desjardins-Gunville said in French.
A Gatineau Hospital doctor told the family a room was available, but according to Desjardins-Gunville, Bélanger soon collapsed and was taken to a resuscitation room where medical staff performed CPR and intubated her.
Staff from CHEO then arrived to transfer the child to Ottawa, she said.
Bélanger died at CHEO on March 17 after staff determined “there was nothing that could be done to save her,” Desjardins-Gunville said.
Looking back on her experience, Desjardins-Gunville said she feels what happened at the Gatineau Hospital was a “failure to assist a person in danger.”
“I don’t understand why the hospital didn’t come back to me and say, ‘Hey, come on, you were there for three hours. That’s definitely not normal,'” she said in French.
CBC reached out to CISSO about Desjardins-Gunville’s concerns. CBC also asked why Bélanger was transferred to CHEO.
CISSO again said it could not comment further on the situation. CHEO also declined to be interviewed, but said via email that “we do want to offer our heartfelt condolences to the family.”
Bélanger was an outgoing four-year-old who looked older than her age and was into arts and crafts, according to her mother.
She wrote well, made beautiful drawings and is survived by an older sister.
When Bélanger hugged people, “it was like your soul was connected to hers,” her mother said.
Desjardins-Gunville said she’s speaking out because she doesn’t want another family to experience what hers is going through.
“I want everybody to be able to go back with their loved ones at home,” she added.
