A heartbroken husband is looking for answers after his wife succumbed to the flu.
The Gatineau mother of two had been transferred to four different hospitals over the course of a couple of days before she died February 12th from complications.
Donald Marengère isn't looking to blame anyone; he's looking for answers to make sure everything was done that could have been to save his wife.
Inside the family’s well-kept house, the living room hosts a wall full of memories of the short time that Donald Marengère had with his wife Cynthia Thibaudeau.
“She had a lot to give her community that she won't be able to give now,” says Marengère, trying to keep his emotions in check.
The 39-year-old died last Monday, February 12th after contracting influenza. The mother of two young boys had gone to the Montfort Hospital the Friday before where they ran some tests.
“They took a scan of her lungs,” Marengère says, “and everything was fine. They told her it was a virus, that she would have to get through it and that there was nothing they could do at that time.”
Marengère says they told his wife to come back if she got worse. On the Sunday, she started coughing up blood and went to the hospital in Gatineau by ambulance.
“That's when everything went downhill,” he says, “and three or four hours later she was gone from all the complications.”
Doctors at the Gatineau hospital tried to stop the bleeding in her lungs but her husband says they didn't have the proper equipment so they transferred her to the Hull hospital.
“Her condition got worse and worse. She had a hemorrhage in her lung and they tried to fix it at the Gatineau Hospital. They transferred her to Hull where they had better equipment. They managed to stop the hemorrhage but she had other complications. Her heart started getting infected and that is when they decided to transfer her to the Ottawa Heart Institute, they told me, to give her the best chance.”
Her husband says she died at the Heart Institute that next day. The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais wasn’t doing interviews today but said in a statement in French that “it is quite normal to transfer a person whose state of health deteriorates to a hospital which has more specialized care and a more elaborate technical platform. The Outaouais CISSS will review the trajectory of care to ensure that it was appropriate for the condition of Ms. Thibaudeau. Everything indicates, however, that (her) care was consistent with the protocol.”
The Montfort Hospital has offered to meet with Marengère.
In a statement, the Montfort offered its condolences to the family
“A quality review of this case is currently underway. For confidentiality reasons, we cannot discuss a specific case. If the family wishes, we welcome the opportunity to meet with them to further discuss this case.”
Cynthia Thibaudeau had received the flu vaccine and was a healthy young woman, studying social work. Her boys are 5 and 6.
“They took it hard,” says their father, “They are strong they are young and will have great memories of their mother.”
