Cancer patient to sue 3 hospitals over delayed diagnosis and treatment

Nicole Valcourt, 55, is planning to sue three hospitals over treatment she felt was delayed too long.

MONTREAL - A cancer patient is planning to file a lawsuit against three hospitals, and she is encouraging other people with the disease to join her cause.

Nicole Valcourt, 55, says she faced an unreasonably long delay in getting not only a diagnosis, but also treatment for her uterine cancer.

She first noticed something was wrong in the weeks before Christmas of 2009 when she had severe stomach pain.

She went to an emergency room for treatment and underwent multiple tests, but it was only two months later that she received the results and learned she had uterine cancer.

Valcourt says it took until March 9, 2010 for her to get surgery and by that point her cancer had progressed from stage 2 to stage 4.

"It's painful to think about, and painful to talk about," she said. "Dying is normal, but not like this, because I should have been operated on sooner--so I could live."

As a result Valcourt is filing a civil suit against the hospitals involved in her care, alleging that Notre Dame Hospital, the MUHC, and the Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle CSSS mishandled her case.

Valcourt said the hospitals told her the delays were due to a lack of resources and operating time.

Her lawyer, Jean-Pierre Menard, said this delay in treatment should not be happening in Canada.

The standard maximum wait time for this type of cancer is four to six weeks.

"It is unacceptable that in Quebec every year we are losing a certain amount of people because of administrative considerations," said Menard.

"We have all the economic means, legal means, political means to make sure that this issue is properly addressed," he added, saying he wants to see a more efficient system where patients receive treatment within the medically accepted timeframe.

Such standards already exist in Quebec's Bill 33, which is designed to speed up access to specialized medical services.

It's not enough, said Paul Brunet, president of the Council for the Protection of Patients.

"We hire more managers to inspect to verify and to control. How about more generosity, more compassion towards patients, more efficiency?" he said.

Valcourt is currently undergoing chemotherapy as her cancer treatment continues.

Menard says he plans to file more lawsuits for others in similar situations.

The Ministry of Health has yet to comment on this to CTV News.