BY MICHAEL JAMES
André Bélanger, a seemingly healthy 34-year-old Chelmsford man, died Easter weekend and his shocked and grief-stricken family want to know why.
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According to the deceased man�s sister, Tammy Bélanger-Poulin, her sister-in-law, Lisa, called early Saturday morning to ask her father-in-law to drive André to the hospital as he was having difficulty breathing.
Â?He wanted his Dad to drive him to the emergency right away,Â? she said. Â?So around 7:30 am., he was brought to the emergency (at St. JosephÂ?s Health Centre). I guess my Dad wasnÂ?t allowed in with him because of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and the screening and all that.Â?
Bélanger-Poulin said she isn�t certain what sort of treatment her brother received at the hospital. As far as she knows, the doctor took a swab of his throat, gave him a prescription and told him to go home.
Â?He could hardly speak,Â? she said, Â?so nobody really knows (for sure). Andy thought heÂ?d be there for awhile, so he told Dad he might as well go home.Â?
When Bélanger was ready to go home, he called his sister, and this time his mother went to pick him up.
As Bélanger-Poulin tells it, the two were about halfway home when her brother complained he was �really not feeling well.�
Â?Mom wanted to go back (to the hospital), but Andy said they wouldnÂ?t let him back in,Â? she said.
Not knowing what else to do, his mother drove him home.
Â?He just managed to get in the houseÂ?he never made it to the chairÂ?he fell, and that was it,Â? she said. Â?He stopped breathing.Â?
The family called 911 and the ambulance arrived within seven minutes, she said.
Â?Apparently, they (the paramedics) didnÂ?t work really hard on him,Â? she said. Â?I guess they figured he was already gone. I know they sat in the ambulance for about 10 minutes in the driveway before they even brought him to the hospital.Â?
The irony, according to Bélanger-Poulin, was that the family had no problems being admitted to the hospital to see her brother once he was dead.
Â?I canÂ?t understand the way the hospital treated him,Â? she said.
What makes her brotherÂ?s untimely death even more of a mystery, in her view, is the fact that, up until that day, her brother had always enjoyed perfect health.
Â?He was never sick a day in his life,Â? she said. ThatÂ?s itÂ?thatÂ?s whatÂ?s so strange. ThatÂ?s why the police are investigating it.Â?
According to Staff Sgt. Todd Zimmerman, Criminal Investigations Unit, Greater Sudbury Police Service, there is no actual police investigation underway as there was no foul play involved.
There is, however, a coroner�s investigation currently underway into Bélanger�s death, Zimmerman said.
According to Dr. John Maki, the coroner assigned to the Bélanger case, there is a coroner�s investigation whenever a sudden death occurs.
Maki had no further comment to offer Northeren Life except to say the investigation is continuing.
Vivian Lapointe, director of communications at Sudbury Regional Hospital, said the hospital is Â?co-operating in every wayÂ? with the coronerÂ?s investigation.
Bélanger-Poulin said an autopsy was performed on her brother and it was determined he was suffering from epiglottitis, an infection and swelling of the epiglottis, the tissue in the throat that covers and protects the larynx during swallowing.
This haemophilus influenza type B infection can cause life-threatening airway obstruction.
Bélanger, a well-known entrepreneur in the Chelmsford area, was co-owner/operator of Bélanger Feed and Farm Supply, and owner/operator of both Le Car Wash and Your Korner Store.
Aside from his various business interests, Bélanger also found time for baseball, bowling, snowmobiling and camping. He was an avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan and golfing was his favourite pastime.
He leaves behind wife Lisa � who is pregnant with their second child � and daughter Kasandra, parents Gaëtan and Paulette Bélanger, and sister Tammy Bélanger-Poulin.
