Heartbreaking Footage Shows Indigenous Woman Filming Canadian Hospital Staff Mocking Her Moments Before She Passed Away

By Samantha in Heartbreaking On 1st October 2020
advertisement
Facebook

A heartbreaking video captures nurses in a Canadian hospital slurring taunts toward an Indigenous woman on the deathbed. 

Scroll down for video

Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old mother of seven, died Monday after being admitted to a Joliette hospital for stomach pain two days prior.

But before her death, she managed to start a Facebook Live video capturing the disturbing event, CBC reported.

advertisement
Follow On Google News

“You’re stupid as hell,” a nurse says in French as Echaquan squirms in pain, according to the outlet.

Facebook

“You made some bad choices, my dear,” another nurse says, according to the Guardian. “What are your children going to think, seeing you like this?”

advertisement
Follow On Twitter

It is reported by CBC, Echaquan, a member of the Atikamekw Indigenous tribe found in southwest Quebec, suffered similar situations previously and also suffered from a heart condition.

Facebook

Her family claims that the Echaquan was given too much morphine which played a role in her death. The claims are under investigation. 

Following the terrible incident, one of the nurses was fired. The disturbing event was also protested by the indigenous leaders as an example of systematic racism that happens far too often and goes ignored in the country, the Guardian reported.

advertisement
Facebook

“Discrimination against First Nations people remains prevalent in the healthcare system and this needs to stop,” the Assembly of First Nations national chief, Perry Bellegarde, said in a statement, the outlet reported.

Quebec Premier François Legault condemned the staff's actions, indicating the event is a reflection of larger racism issue. 

“I really don’t think we have this kind of way of dealing with First Nations people in our hospitals in Quebec,” he said.

Back in 2019, retired Superior Court Justice Jacques Viens released a report that found it’s “impossible to deny” that Indigenous people in Quebec are victims of “systemic discrimination” when accessing health care and other public services, CBC reported.

Facebook

Echaquan’s husband finds himself lost after his wife's death. The heartbroken man says, “I have seven children who find themselves without a mother,” Carol Dubé said.

“I am sad. I am so sad.”

advertisement