Family tells of grief in gran’s final days

A HOBART family has described the anguish of losing a loved one in aged care amid the COVID-19 crisis, as a relaxing of visitor restrictions from today aims to ease the burden on other families.

As Jan Revill reached the end of her battle with cancer at the Regis Eastern Shore aged care home, her family struggled with the limited time they were allowed by her side.

From today, families will be granted more time to spend with their loved ones in aged care, with visits now increased to one visit a week with no more than two visitors, managed by each facility.

But with the state’s facilities still in lockdown in April, for Ms Revill’s family and many others, visitors were only allowed if providing end-of-life support to a resident or were a key support person.

Ms Revill’s granddaughter Misty Brickel said her mum was granted a special hourlong visit with her grandma where she could see her health rapidly declining.

“We were doing anything we could to see her,” Ms Brickell said.

“We would have gone in with hazmat suits if we had to. Grandma could have gone at any point we weren’t there. It’s really, really lucky that she didn’t.

“I don’t think grandma wanted to go without mum there. I think she was holding on for that.”

Ms Brickell’s mum was granted permission to stay by her side for her final days.

“Mum was allowed in there for the last five days, which was so lucky and so great,” she said.

“By this stage, grandma was saying she was ready to go.”

After Ms Revill died on April 21, the family then faced further challenges such as restrictions around funerals.

“It’s horrible. Most of our family lives on the mainland, so we’ll have to wait until the travel bans are lifted,” Ms Brickell said.

A spokesperson from Regis Aged Care said its priority was the safety and wellbeing of residents and employees.

“We appreciate the balance necessary to ensure families maintain access to their loved ones through this difficult time, particularly where people are saying goodbye,” the spokesperson said.

“We also understand the significant stress and anxiety the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on our residents and their families and our employees continue to provide every support.”

Ms Brickell said her family understood the reason for the restrictions, but having to say goodbye under such circumstances had been very difficult.

“I’m sure we’re not the only ones in this situation. It was just really hard,” she said.