A woman from Quebec denounces a call received from a non-profit organization congratulating her on the arrival of her newborn.
“I received a call from someone who introduced himself as being from the Fondation du CHU de Québec and the person congratulated me on my baby,” says Vicky Tremblay. “But no, I don’t have a baby a few days old at home, I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of January.”
A disturbing moment for the mother of the family.
“I found it a little unpleasant. It made me angry, it also saddened me because want not want, it takes us back to those memories…”
The call came from the CST Foundation, which specializes in education savings plans.
“The family had asked, not through the CHU in this case, but from another program (…) had asked to be contacted for information on education savings plans (…) Consent can be withdrawn at any time from the parents, but in this case it was not done”, explains Claude Gauthier, branch manager for CST.
Ms. Tremblay understands the notion of consent, but she wants the organization to change the way it approaches clients to prevent other women from going through a similar situation.
“It’s really the approach of being congratulated for a baby that I don’t have and that I would have liked to have,” she laments. “I go back to my first miscarriage and if it had happened to me there, for sure I would have cried for two hours.”
The CHU de Québec Foundation confirms that CST is a partner, but emphasizes that it is a completely independent organization.
“We will require the partner to be very clear on the one hand when he contacts the people who have registered on their site not to mention the Fondation du CHU”, mentions the senior director of operations and continuous improvement of the CHU de Québec Foundation, Annie Beauregard.
A request that the CST Foundation says it is ready to meet.
“I will review with the representatives perhaps that if the source of the name does not come from the CHU not to refer to the partnership”, says Mr. Gauthier.