Chloé Bélanger

Chloé Bélanger was a four-year-old girl from Gatineau, Quebec, who was not a public figure in life but became known across Quebec and eastern Ontario after <cite index="2-1">the Quebec coroner's office released a report outlining a number of changes in progress after examining the death of a four-year-old girl from Gatineau earlier this year.</cite> She died in March 2026 after a severe asthma attack, and her mother's account of the hours spent in a hospital emergency room prompted reviews of pediatric emergency care in the Outaouais region.

Chloé had a history of asthma. <cite index="1-10">Desjardins-Gunville said her daughter had already been hospitalized several times in January</cite>, after contracting a series of viral illnesses that left her lungs weakened. On the evening of Friday, March 13, 2026, <cite index="3-1">her mother took her to the Hôpital de Gatineau because of a severe asthma attack.</cite> <cite index="1-4,1-5">Alexandra Desjardins-Gunville said that while her daughter was seen by respiratory therapists and a doctor, the family was left alone for extended periods of time, and she said they felt like they had to "beg" for further help until Bélanger went into what she was later told was cardio-respiratory arrest, had to be resuscitated and was transferred to CHEO, where she died on March 17.</cite>

Chloé never recovered from the arrest. <cite index="4-1">She had been transferred to the Centre hospitalier pour enfants de l'Est de l'Ontario, where her brain death was announced to her parents on March 17, 2026.</cite> <cite index="6-4">The transfer to CHEO had been decided around 4:30 a.m. on March 14, after consultation with the Ontario hospital's team, and during the transfer a pharmacist flagged a dosage error involving a medication administered too quickly by infusion during Chloé's stay in the Gatineau emergency room.</cite> A funeral was held for her in Gatineau in late March 2026. At a related tribute, a family member called for greater investment in a health system whose staff she described as exhausted. <cite index="4-2">Her mother had criticized shortcomings in how her daughter was cared for by the hospital service, and hospital staff were subsequently subjected to hateful comments that the mother condemned.</cite> <cite index="5-4">Desjardins-Gunville later said publicly that she would not tolerate her daughter's name being used to take revenge on hospital employees.</cite>

Both Quebec and Ontario opened investigations into Chloé's death. <cite index="4-5">Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner undertook to investigate Chloé Bélanger's death</cite>, while in Quebec, <cite index="2-6">the coroner's report, dated October 14, went over the approximately eight hours between the girl's arrival at the Gatineau Hospital emergency room and her departure with a medical team for Ottawa.</cite> <cite index="6-7,6-8">The coroner's analysis also noted that Chloé had been hospitalized several times in connection with her asthma in the weeks before her death, and that the suspected cause of her asthma, the presence of animals in the home, was still under investigation pending allergy testing.</cite>

On October 14, 2026, <cite index="6-1">Santé Québec Outaouais, the regional health authority, said it was revising its intervention methods following Chloé's death.</cite> Responding to the coroner's report, <cite index="2-7,2-8">Desjardins-Gunville said in a statement to Radio-Canada that she was saddened by the long list of changes, saying "I am tired of a system that tends to correct things after a tragedy takes place."</cite> <cite index="2-9">She still said she hoped the changes would prevent similar instances from happening in the future.</cite>