(January 23, 2021)<\/p>\n
By: Donald Macdonald, Sudbury Star<\/p>\n
Jennifer Penny\u2019s 81-year-old mom died of COVID-19 on Boxing Day, two days after staff at her Niagara Falls long-term care home claimed she was \u201cdoing well\u201d despite testing positive for the virulent virus.<\/p>\n
In an emotional presentation to an Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) Zoom media conference \u2014 attended by more than 100 seniors advocates, union members, health professionals and families of residents in LTC homes \u2014 the Oshawa woman said she drove through a snowstorm from home to Niagara Falls on Christmas evening after being called suddenly and told that her mom was no longer eating and drinking.<\/p>\n
Yvette Brauch passed away within an hour of her arrival, Penny told the press conference.<\/p>\n
She said her daughter, who\u2019d also gone to see her grandmother, didn\u2019t make it in time because \u201cno one answered\u201d the front door of the facility.<\/p>\n
Penny was just one of five families from all corners of the province (with loved ones in for-profit homes) who wanted Premier Doug Ford to know that contrary to what he contended earlier this week, everything is not \u201chunky dory\u201d during this deadly second wave. They also wanted to challenge Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton\u2019s contentions that there is no staffing crisis.<\/p>\n
Natalie Mehra, executive director of the OHC, said the second wave has devastated long-term care \u2014 yet again \u2014 with the number of cases now far exceeding those in the first wave.<\/p>\n
She said there are 1,200-1,500 new cases per week and 257 LTC homes are currently in an outbreak. Some 99 of them have 10 residents and\/or staff cases or more.<\/p>\n
Mehra told the press conference that the number of deaths in a week has grown to 171, which equates to one LTC resident dying each hour.<\/p>\n
In some homes up to 90 or 100% of the residents are affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are dying at a rate never seen before,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n
She asked for immediate action to recruit new staff for LTC homes where employee numbers have been much depleted by the first and second waves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many, many LTC homes in a staffing crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cStaffing has crumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also feels the military should be deployed, yet again, to help in some of the hotspots.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor profits are doing what they can get away with,\u201d Mehra said. \u201cThere are no fines and no consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penny said she found out about the outbreak in the for-profit LTC home where her mom Yvette resided through an automated message.<\/p>\n
She claims she spent five days trying to reach someone about her mom\u2019s condition \u2014 either no one would answer the phone or someone at the nursing station would pick up the phone and quickly hang it up.<\/p>\n
When she arrived on Christmas night, no one was at the nursing station and after her mom passed away, she said a nurse told her she\u2019d been working for 16 hours straight.<\/p>\n
After her mom died, Penny said she went out into the hall and found a resident in a wheelchair begging for water.<\/p>\n
Later, after the dust settled, she realized her mom hadn\u2019t stopped eating and drinking \u2014 she just wasn\u2019t being fed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions were horrific and inhumane,\u201d Penny said. \u201cThey were confined to their rooms and the only people they saw were in gowns and masks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jo-Ann Beggs lost her 91-year-old mom Barbara \u2014 who was blind, deaf and bedridden \u2014 on Oct. 9 in an Oakville for-profit LTC home.<\/p>\n
Beggs said she was \u201cpathologically isolated\u201d in her bed for 22 of 24 hours a day and started to yelp in pain five months into the lockdown.<\/p>\n
She said the pain was not adequately managed by the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt still sickens me to think of the pain she endured,\u201d Beggs said. \u201cI\u2019m left anguished considering how much she suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n
She believes her mom\u2019s death was preventable and feels what is happening in some LTC homes is \u201csadistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beggs said this needs fixing now and before the \u201cfull boomer aging wave\u201d hits us.<\/p>\n