GUT-WRENCHING BATTLE
Fighting for promised english-language care for his wife, Alexandra Stefanatos, who is suffering from dementia, George Zeliotis recalled A nurse responding to his request for English service: ‘This is quebec. We speak french in quebec.’ Aaron Derfel repor
George Zeliotis — the Anjou resident who waged a successful fight before the Supreme Court of Canada for shorter surgical wait times for all Canadians — is now facing a new battle with Quebec’s healthcare system.
At the age of 87, Zeliotis is fighting for dignified care for his 80-year-old wife, who is suffering from dementia. Zeliotis said he was promised repeatedly by a social worker that his wife would be placed in a public nursing home where the staff could speak to her in English.
Instead, Alexandra Stefanatos — Zeliotis’s wife of nearly 60 years — is spending her final days in an east-end long-term care centre where most of the staff speak French only. Stefanatos, who once possessed a sharp mind as a bank loan officer, cannot speak French well. And so in addition to struggling with dementia, Stefanatos finds it nearly impossible to communicate with her care workers.
Stefanatos’s plight is all too common as many elderly Englishspeaking Quebecers — especially those who live off the island of Montreal — find it increasingly difficult to receive care in their mother tongue in the province’s network of nursing homes, say anglophone-rights advocates.
“I’m very, very frustrated because everybody told me they were going to do something for my wife,” Zeliotis said. “But you go there at night and nobody speaks English.”
Zeliotis was alluding to the CHSLD Benamin-Victor-Rousselot on Sherbrooke St. E., just east of the Olympic Stadium. The nursing home’s website is in French only, as is its automated phone message system.
“When I first called the centre to go see my wife there, I asked a nurse over the phone if she could speak English. She said, ‘No, sir.’ I asked if there was anyone who could speak English. She told me, ‘This is Quebec. We speak French in Quebec.’ ”
When Zeliotis visited his wife at the CHSLD for the first time, he was shocked to see how unhappy she looked.
“When she sees me, she recognizes me and she embraces me and she kisses me, and she promises me that we’re going to be back together.” Zeliotis’s voice trails off and he begins to choke up as he recalls the incident.
“I’m depleted,” added Zeliotis, a retired industrial chemicals salesmen, whose year-long wait for hip surgery was cited in a 2006 Supreme Court judgment. The highest court in the land ruled Zeliotis’s lengthy wait violated his right to life, liberty and security under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In response to the ruling, both Quebec and the federal government set wait-time guarantees for hip and knee replacements.
This time around, however, Zeliotis said he’s worried he might not win his fight to have his wife placed in a bilingual nursing home. He’s asked to have Stefanatos moved to the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre on Ste-Catherine St. E., but was told there’s no room available.
And so for the foreseeable future, Stefanatos will remain at the CHSLD Benamin-Victor-Rousselot. A spokesperson for the institution
Everybody told me they were goingtodo something for my wife. But you go there at night and nobody speaks English.
declined to comment on her case, citing patient confidentiality.
“However, please be aware that we quickly process any transfer request,” said Christian Merciari, a media-relations agent for the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which oversees the CHSLD Benamin-Victor-Rousselot.
Still, Merciari acknowledged that “we do not have any control” over the ultimate placement of a patient in a territory outside of the CIUSSS’s jurisdiction.
“On the other hand,” he added, “our teams ensure, to the extent possible, that residents are served at all times by staff who can speak their language.”
Those words are cold comfort for Zeliotis, who visits his wife every day despite his poor health.
“I feel I made a mistake when I came to this country,” he said, “that I made a mistake when I stayed in Quebec.”