May 19 was published in a powerful letter The dutyDirector and actress Micheline Lanctôt slammed the government and hospital for the untimely death of her husband, Marshall Chrostowski.
• Also read: Micheline Lanctôt mourns the loss of her lover
• Also read: Micheline Lanctôt talks about her unusual love story
On May 10, the former geographer died surrounded by his loved ones and in the comfort of his home at the age of 86. According to the actress, despite recovering from lung cancer, Mr. Chrostowski was described as “strong, vigorous, conscious and functioning” upon admission to the hospital. When he left, however, the landscape gardener was only “a shadow of himself”. […] emaciated, weakened, anxious and gasping for breath.”
In her haunting letter, Micheline Lanctôt underscores the numerous failings in the healthcare system that she believes led to the death of her loved one.
She also denounces witnessing that no one followed the protocol of two visitors per bed and that it was “the Mass”; that people would enter and leave the emergency room “without masks, without hygiene precautions”.
Lanctôt also reports that the atmosphere in the ICU was marked by a serious lack of respect:
“The ward is working at full capacity, the patients are obviously doing very poorly. But in unity it is the party. It’s rocking from one side of the ward to the other, doctors, nurses, attendants, we talk and call out to each other without the slightest respect for the patients.
The reason Micheline Lanctôt’s wife went to the hospital was because he started coughing again and the actress feared her cancer would come back. She was quick to voice her suspicions to several doctors she spoke to about the situation. However, none of them took the actress seriously, saying recurrence was “unlikely so soon after surgery.”
“We sent him home on Tuesday May 9th and he died on the night of May 10th.
[…] Minister Dubé, we can say that the hospital killed my spouse. Cancer might have defeated him, but I could have enjoyed his loving presence a little longer. This situation was unbearable. I don’t blame anyone, it’s the system that’s broken. This system that so many of your peers have tried to reform without ever getting any results! […] In the meantime, I have lost the person I loved most in the world, in conditions unworthy of his great soul,” she wrote in her heartbreaking letter, which you can read in full here.
Our hearts go out to the actress and her loved ones.