Second worker from care home dies of COVID-19

Unidentified woman, in her 50s worked at Madonna Care Community for 8 years

A second personal support worker from Madonna Care Community has died from COVID -19, say union officials. The woman, in her 50s, has not been identified.

A representatives of CUPE, the union to which the worker belonged, said she has been off work fighting the illness since midApril. She had worked at the home for close to eight years.

She is the second worker from Madonna to die during the pandemic, making the beleaguered Ottawa long-term care home the only one in the province with multiple worker deaths.

In addition to the deaths of two workers, 43 residents of Madonna Care Community have died. Workers from Ottawa hospitals have been helping fill staffing gaps at the home in recent weeks.

Friday’s death is the third in the city of a support worker.

On May 7, a male personal support worker from Madonna died of COVID -19. On May 20, a personal support worker from the city-run Peter D. Clark long-term care home also succumbed to COVID-19.

More than one-quarter of all residents at the 160-bed Madonna Care Community have now died of COVID-19. According to the most recent Ottawa Public Health figures, the majority of residents and staff are still infected — there are 98 resident cases in the home and 59 cases among staff members.

In addition to cases among staff, one worker passed COVID-19 to her husband, who has since died, according to the union.

Candace Rennick, secretary treasurer of CUPE Ontario and a former PSW in a long-term care home, said the death is maddening because more could be done to protect front-line workers during the pandemic.

“People have been asking for greater levels of protection, more funding and more staff. The government just continues to fail seniors and workers.”

She said workers in long-term care should have access to higher-protection N95 masks rather than the surgical masks they are reusing during the day. “Maybe it is the N95 that can stop some of this,” she said. “Can we just try?”

The province has ruled that surgical masks are suitable protection in most cases, but N95s, which offer protection for aerosol-based viruses, can be used in high-risk situations. Rennick said that includes PSWs working closely with sick residents.

“It is a case of life and death. People are dying on the job.”

She also said the province should consider taking over Madonna Care Community, which lost 50 per cent of its staff when the pandemic began and has struggled since.

Ottawa Liberal MPPs have repeatedly asked the provincial government to take over management of Madonna, as it is now doing at some Toronto-area homes where the military witnessed alleged abuse, negligence and filth.

Madonna’s parent company Sienna Senior Living is the focus of a proposed class-action lawsuit by families whose loved-ones have died of COVID-19.