Family wants answers after Quebec woman posts video begging for help in hospital, dies 2 days later

The Quebec coroner is investigating the death of Mireille Ndjomouo, who posted a video on social media two days before she died claiming staff at a hospital on Montreal's South Shore had ignored her allergies.

Ndjomouo, a 44-year-old single mother of three from Cameroon, posted a video to social media last Sunday.

She repeatedly said staff at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital in Longueuil had treated her with penicillin, even though she said they knew that she was allergic.

In the video, Ndjomouo begged anyone watching to help her get transferred to another hospital.

"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.

Ndjomouo repeatedly said in the video that she was having trouble breathing, had pain all through her body and that her stomach was swollen.

She also said she was injected with penicillin over the course of three days.

Ndjomouo said the injections stopped when a nurse noticed that her lips were swollen and said the reaction wasn't normal.

After seeing the video online, members of the Cameroonian community in Montreal went to the hospital with Ndjomouo's sister and arranged to have her transferred to the Jewish General Hospital. 

Ndjomouo died there on Tuesday. The cause of her death is not yet known.

The regional health authority that oversees the Charles-Le Moyne Hospital, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre, told CBC in an email that it can't comment on the case due to confidentiality, but did say that the quality department is looking into it.

The Jewish General Hospital would not give details about Ndjomouo, citing patient confidentiality.

On Saturday, friends and family of Ndjomouo held a demonstration outside of Charles-Le Moyne Hospital, demanding answers.

"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.

Christine said her sister lost faith in the personnel at the hospital and wanted to leave. She said it took five hours of negotiation before the hospital agreed to transfer her sister.

Friends have started an online fundraiser for the family, to help support Ndjomouo's children and repatriate her body to Cameroon.