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       Marylynn Matchewan was airlifted to the Sacre-Coeur Hospital in Montreal last week after a car accident in Val-d’Or.

       Christinne Muschi/The Globe and Mail

       Marylynn Matchewan, an Indigenous advocate, mother and grandmother, says she was treated poorly by staff after being admitted to Montreal’s Sacré-Coeur hospital and intends to file a formal complaint.

       The 44-year-old from the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a First Nation in Quebec, was airlifted to the hospital last week after a car accident in Val-d’Or. The collision resulted in serious physical impacts, including fractures to her pelvis, hips and leg.

       Ms. Matchewan told The Globe and Mail this week that she was left to sit on a chair with her own filled bed pan and that no one responded to her calls for help. She also detailed some of her concerns in a video posted to Facebook.

       “I sat there in my pan for two hours,” she said, adding that she is speaking out because she does not want another patient to experience what she is going through.

       Ms. Matchewan said Friday evening she had been released from the hospital, but had been afraid during her stay, especially when she was alone in the evening after visiting hours were over and her loved ones had gone home.

       The way that Indigenous people are treated in Canada’s health care system has been under a microscope, particularly in the past year after the September, 2020 death of Joyce Echaquan, in a hospital in Joliette, Que., touched off condemnation from Indigenous leaders, health experts and politicians across Canada.

       Safety concerns expressed by Indigenous patients have also been formally documented, such as during an independent investigation into allegations of racism in B.C.’s health care system. Experts say the problem is national in scope and persists today.

       Ms. Matchewan said she used every ounce of strength to hoist herself off of a chair where she was stuck on top of her dirty bed pan. Only later, did a staff member come by, she added.

       She also said that she felt blamed because her overfilled catheter bag fell down and splashed urine all over the floor. She said that the mess was not cleaned right away and the room started to smell.

       “You could really tell, it’s not the way [you’re] supposed to treat a patient,” she said. “We’ve already had one of our First Nation ladies die [Joyce Echaquan], you know.”

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       On Monday, family and friends seeking to support Ms. Matchewan sent a letter to a complaints commissioner detailing “disturbing patterns of negligence” and saying that they had received “profoundly disturbing reports from her regarding her care and condition.”

       “We remember all too well Joyce Echaquan and the many other Indigenous women who have died or endured avoidable suffering and compounded injuries due to racism and medical neglect in Quebec hospitals,” their letter said. It added that the conditions that Ms. Matchewan has been subjected to are a violation of her patients rights, human rights and Indigenous rights.

       In a statement Friday, the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’？le-de-Montréal, an umbrella organization that oversees area hospitals, responded to queries from The Globe detailing a series of steps taken in response to the concerns. It said the response included follow-up by hospital staff directly with Ms. Matchewan to ensure that her health, safety and well-being were not compromised and a meeting with unit staff took place to make sure that she is receiving the care and services required.

       The statement also said that she can file a formal compliant if she wishes and these are very serious allegations that they take very seriously. Ms. Matchewan said Friday that she does intend to lodge a formal complaint.

       The CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’？le-de-Montréal also said it was deeply shaken by the comparison between the situation of Ms. Matchewan and that of Ms. Echaquan. It said it asked that a cultural safety resource try to understand what she had been going through for the past few days.

       Senator Yvonne Boyer, a former nurse and lawyer who is Métis and has closely examined concerns of Indigenous people in the health care system, said that Ms. Matchewan’s story is consistent with what she has heard from Indigenous patients from B.C. to the East Coast and in the North and what she has observed in hospitals.

       She also said she has never heard from an Indigenous person about a great experience they had in any hospital. There are people within the hospital system in Canada that have issues with Indigenous people, she added.

       “It’s been like that for years,” she said. “And that’s what needs to be eradicated.”

       Last week, Coroner Géhane Kamel said that systemic racism was “undeniable” in Ms. Echaquan’s case. She also found her death to be accidental but avoidable. Ms. Echaquan, a member of the Atikamekw Nation and mother of seven, was seeking medical help at the hospital in Joliette, about 70 kilometres northeast of Montreal, when she went live on Facebook and recorded taunts she endured before she died.

       Ms. Kamel’s report said the 37-year-old Atikamekw woman would likely still be alive if she were a white woman.

       “We have witnessed an unacceptable death, and we must ensure that it is not in vain,” Ms. Kamel said.

       The chief commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Marion Buller, told The Globe last year that the verbally abusive way in which Ms. Echaquan was treated before her death is a “grim reminder” of the failings of health care services in Canada. She said the inquiry also heard consistent concerns raised from coast to coast to coast.

       With report from Eric Andrew-Gee in Montreal, Bill Curry in Ottawa and The Canadian Press

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