Sylvie Deslongchamps, left, pictured with her friend and caregiver Céline Champagne, has been told she has only a few months to live. (CBC)

A Quebec woman is suing a hospital for $760,000 for failing to tell her she tested positive for cervical cancer three years ago.

Sylvie Deslongchamps said she didn't suspect anything was wrong after she underwent a routine physical in January 2007 that included a Pap smear.

The Charles-Lemoyne Hospital in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, where she had the exam, never called her about the test results.

"When you don't have any news, it's good news," said Céline Champagne, Deslongchamps's friend and caregiver.

But in September 2008, when Deslongchamps started to hemorrhage, she returned for another checkup.

That's when her gynecologist discovered a positive Pap test in her file that indicated cancerous growth in her cervix.

By that time, the cancer had advanced so much it was inoperable, Champagne said.

Deslongchamps has received other treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but doctors have told her she has only a few months to live.

Deslongchamps, who lives in St. Constant on Montreal's South Shore, has filed a lawsuit against the hospital to prevent a similar situation happening to someone else.

"I'm so angry to watch her suffer like this, when, frankly, all of it could have been avoided," Champagne said.

The Quebec Patients Council is supporting the legal action. "One mistake, one piece of negligence, one dossier dropped is one too many," said council president Paul Brunet.

Quebecers pay more taxes than Canadians in any other province — most of which funds health care — and services should be held to higher standards, Brunet said.

Officials at the hospital say they won't comment on the case.