Canadian authorities are investigating after a Black woman died in a Montreal hospital just two days after posting a video to social media in which she expressed fear that health care workers were trying to kill her.
Mireille Ndjomouo, a 44-year-old Cameroonian woman and mother of three, passed away on March 9 after posting a video claiming medical staff at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil were trying to kill her after they allegedly injected her with penicillin despite knowing she was allergic to the drug.
“Help me, I don’t want to die and leave my kids. I’m suffocating. I’m allergic to penicillin but then they injected me with penicillin, knowing full well that I’m allergic,” she said in pleas translated from her native language, begging to be transferred to another hospital.
Ndjomoumo first entered the hospital on March 1 due to hip pain but was placed in isolation because there were concerns that she might have been infected with tuberculosis, The Montreal Gazette reported.
In a video posted to social media on March 7, Ndjomouo spoke from her hospital bed. Her face was swollen and her breathing sounded labored. She said her stomach was also swollen and that she was suffering from pain and a head-to-toe rash. She said she was injected with penicillin over a period of three days even though they knew “full well” that she was allergic.
“It is as if they are killing me bit by bit,” she said, asking members of the Cameroonian community to share the video on social media. “My mouth is paralyzed, my face is also swollen. … I’m not really the person you see on this video. … I am slowly dying in this hospital. … I am asking the doctor to transfer me to another hospital, where I would be better followed, but he doesn’t want to.”
After the video was shared, community members and Ndjomouo’s sister showed up at the hospital and arranged to have her transferred to the Jewish General Hospital. She died there two days later after being diagnosed with lymphoma. Her cause of death is not known, and the Quebec coroner is investigating the matter. Ndjomouo’s family said it took five hours of negotiating before the hospital agreed to transfer her.
A spokesperson for Ndjomouo’s family said it’s too early to be certain of the circumstances surrounding her death. “But we want answers,” Montreal lawyer Aric Jackson Kingne Wekouo said on Sunday, March 14. “We want to know what happened, why she was not transferred when she asked to be transferred.”
The Jewish General Hospital said it can’t provide any details because of patient confidentiality. The health authority responsible for Charles-Le Moyne, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre is also investigating the situation.
“She’s gone, but many questions still remain about what happened to her,” said Christine Ndjomouo, Mireille’s sister.
“I keep hearing her voice saying, ‘Come and save me. Come and save me, they’re going to kill me. I’m all puffed up. Get me out of here.’ That’s what I hear every day since it happened,” she said.
Ndjomouo leaves behind three children, the youngest of whom is 14 years old. A GoFundMe page has raised $25,000 to help Ndjomouo’s family return her body to Cameroon.
“Our main goal now is for Mireille to be returned and buried,” said Kingne Wekouo. “Mireille was a refugee, fleeing persecution when she came to a country in the belief she would be safe — and she was again persecuted.”
