Family wants answers after COVID-19 diagnosis, death
Livia Lostracco, 99, overheard telling support worker ‘she wanted to die’
Josephine Gillespie says her mother Livia Lostracco felt so sick that she couldn’t go on living.
But she said the Welland long-termcare home where Lostracco spent the last three years of her long life apparently didn’t think she was sick enough to call an ambulance.
Gillespie said a personal support worker (PSW) from Royal Rose Place called her at about 5 p.m. on April 14 and put the phone to Lostracco’s ear to give them a chance to talk.
Lostracco — she was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier that day — was too sick and delirious to carry on a conversation, her daughter said.
Gillespie, however, did overhear her mother speaking to the PSW.
“The last thing I heard was, she told him that she wanted to die. That was the last I heard,” Gillespie said.
About five hours later, the longterm-care home called Gillespie again — to tell her that her mother had died.
Lostracco is one of nine residents who have lost their lives to the COVID-19 outbreak at the home on Prince Charles Drive, and among at least 36 deaths across Niagara since the crisis began more than a month ago. Lostracco had been looking forward to celebrating her 100th birthday in September.
“If it wasn’t for this, she would have made it for sure,” Gillespie said. “She was a strong woman and she would
have lived to 100.”
Thursday — nine days after her mother’s death — Gillespie said she received another phone call from the home’s administrator.
“I asked her, ‘Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?’” Gillespie said. “She said, ‘Well, we didn’t think she was that bad.’”
Lostracco’s granddaughter, Tammy Coutu, said the family could see her condition grow worse with each day that passed, since she showed her first symptoms.
She said her grandmother had a fever on April 2, and her cough grew worse in the weeks that followed. Coutu said when speaking with her grandmother online on the Sunday before she died, she could clearly see her health deteriorating — describing her condition as confused, delirious, really congested. Gillespie said she called the home later that day to speak to a nurse, who “seemed not concerned, like nothing was
wrong.”
And although Lostracca was tested for COVID -19 on April 10, the family has heard conflicting reports of when her swab was actually sent to the lab for testing.
Royal Rose Place administrator Helen Millar — she referred questions from the media to parent company Jarlette Health Services — has been providing updates via email to the families of residents.
In her most recent update on Wednesday, Millar reported 42 staff members, as well as 56 of the home’s 96 residents, had tested positive for COVID-19.
That’s 98 cases — close to onequarter of all of Niagara’s 412 cases of the virus reported by the Region’s public health department on Thursday.
“We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the seemingly high spike in confirmed staff cases,” Millar wrote. “Any staff member who tests positive for COVID-19 within our home is mandated to self-isolate in their personal place of residence. This information is tracked on our internal
records, which we then use to provide you with our standing updates.”
Jarlette spokesperson Stephanie Barber replied to questions from The St. Catharines Standard with an email, saying the company cannot discuss “any specific resident matters per our privacy policy and out of respect to their family members.”
Barber said test swabs for residents are collected by Niagara’s health department on a daily basis, and the results are relayed to family members as soon as they are returned.
“In addition, our home maintains standing communication with all family members on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week, while managing any and all additional inquiries that may come to the home,” she added.
“The safety, comfort and wellbeing of our residents, family members, staff and the Welland community at large, continues to be our utmost priority and our practices and protocols will continue to reflect those of public health in order to mitigate
the transmission of the virus within our home.”
Despite numerous staff members testing positive for the virus, including many who are self-isolating in their personal place of residence, Barber said the home is “still fullyequipped to care for the needs of our residents.”
“We are also happy to report that as of this week, 14 staff members have since returned to work,” she said, adding public health is solely responsible for determining when a staff member can return to work “to ensure optimal safety for our community of residents and fellow staff.”
Still, Coutu said Lostracco’s family feels far more could have been done to help her.
“We kind of felt that things weren’t happening that we were asking for, and also things you’d thing would be happening if a loved one is in their care,” she said.
The family also wonders why Royal Rose has been hit as hard as it has with the virus, while other homes have been relatively unscathed.