On the fifth day of the public inquiry into Amélie Champagne's suicide in autumn 2022, numerous experts continued to comment on Friday, particularly questioning the assumption that the young woman suffered from Lyme disease.
In the morning Dr. Gustavo Turecki, scientific director of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal, said he conducted the psychological autopsy of Amélie Champagne by analyzing the last six months of her life.
He identified numerous symptoms that led him to conclude that she was suffering from major depressive disorder, including a significant decline in interest, loss of appetite and weight, insomnia and fatigue, loss of energy, excessive guilt, cognitive distortions, and the presence of suicidal thoughts.
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Afterwards, an infectious disease specialist from the CIUSSS de l'Estrie, Dr. Mirabelle Kelly, out. She analyzed the results of three tests carried out by Amélie Champagne between March 2021 and May 2022. All three were negative for Lyme disease.
A few months before her death, a home test analyzed in the United States revealed that she had babesiosis.
Babesiosis, like Lyme disease, is an infection caused by a parasite transmitted through the bite of a tick, except that, according to medical literature, there has never been a confirmed human case in the country.
Dr. Kelly wanted to warn coroner Julie-Kim Godin: A misdiagnosis of a vulnerable patient seeking an answer to their problems can have several consequences.
With this she set the table for the neurologist Arline-Aude Bérubé. In her CHUM clinic, she treats many people who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease or long-term Covid due to unexplained symptoms, but who actually suffer from functional neurological disorders.
These people experience real physical symptoms, often caused by emotional overactivation, without an actual physical illness.
Recall that in September 2022, after a first suicide attempt, when psychiatric emergencies were struggling with overflows, Amélie Champagne could not be admitted to any of the departments of the Hôtel-Dieu hospitals in Sherbrooke or Notre-Dame de Montreal, even if this the case would have been the psychiatrist's wish.
After two days and two nights on a stretcher, the 22-year-old young woman insisted on returning to her parents' house, where she unfortunately took her own life two days later.
After five days of substantive testimony, the public inquest by Coroner Julie-Kim Godin will continue on January 22 in the Recommendations section.
The full report can be found above