New Brunswick family pushes for health-care improvements after three-year-old daughter dies

Mohamad Bou Melhem is speaking out about New Brunswick health care and advocating for fast improvements after his three-year-old daughter died earlier this month

At just three and a half years old, Cyntia Bou Melhem was larger than life.

“She was so active, dancing, calm, organized, joyful,” said her father, Mohamad Bou Melhem.

Cyntia was learning English, French and Arabic, she did gymnastics and she loved playing with her older sister.

“Everyone loved her in the daycare and all our relatives, our families, they were… when they see her they were excited,” he said.

On Jan. 25, Cyntia came down with a fever.

By the 27th, after two days of medication like Tylenol and Ibuprofen, her mother took her to the George Dumont Hospital in Moncton when the young girl started to throw up.

Bou Melhem took a taxi to the hospital that evening since his wife had the car.