Wettlaufer described as problem employee
Former care facility head takes stand, recalls being ‘devastated’ by confession
A former manager of a longterm care home was enjoying her first week of retirement when she received news she says crushed her.
Brenda Van Quaethem, the first witness to take the stand at a public inquiry probing the murders of eight patients by a nurse, broke into tears as she described how she learned through a phone chat with a friend that a police investigation was underway at her former workplace.
The friend, who still worked at Caressant Care Nursing Home in Woodstock, said registered nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer had confessed to murdering seven of its residents.
“I think I was devastated, I still am,” Van Quaethem wept, describing how she “felt so badly for the residents and their families.”
The testimony, on Day 2 of public hearings, provided the first glimpse of the painful impact the crimes had on those other than residents and families at the home.
Wettlaufer pleaded guilty a year ago to killing eight residents under her care in two nursing homes, and seriously harming six others. She was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The inquiry, headed by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Eileen Gillese, is looking into how Wettlaufer, 50, was able to give patients lethal overdoses of insulin without being noticed.
Public hearings, taking place in nearby St. Thomas, will con- tinue for four months. Gillese will deliver a report — including recommendations on how to prevent such atrocities from happening again — in a year. Van Quaethem, who was the head administrator of the home until late September 2016, testified her disbelief turned to devastation upon learning of the killing spree that occurred under her watch. Her first response was to question whether Wettlaufer was just trying to get attention by making the confession. Her voice cracking, Van Quaethem described how it occurred to her that she may have been part of the reason Wettlaufer chose one of her victims. The woman, a resident in the home, died within days of Van Quaethem and another manager reprimanding the nurse for doing a poor job of caring for her.
Van Quaethem painted a curiously mixed picture of Wettlaufer.
She said the nurse was a problem employee with a personnel file rife with citations. Wettlaufer was sanctioned for neglecting and even harming residents; for failing to account for missing narcotics; for unprofessional conduct and for repeated conflicts with co-workers.
The inquiry heard Wettlaufer, the only registered nurse on the night shift and the senior-most employee in charge, dismissed concerns from a personal support worker that a resident was struggling to breathe. Wettlaufer let three nights go by before giving the resident oxygen.
On another occasion, PSWs looked at each other in disbelief when Wettlaufer used unsanitized scissors to burst a bloodfilled blister on a resident’s leg, the inquiry was told.
“I did discipline her many, many, many times,” Van Quaethem said.
Yet, she also described Wettlaufer as respectful and compassionate toward residents.
Even warning letters the home gave Wettlaufer about poor performance described her as a valuable employee.
Van Quaethem acknowledged she had very little training in how to deal with problem employees.
She described a work environment in which it was very difficult to recruit nurses in longterm care, especially for the overnight shift.
And it was hard to take tougher disciplinary action against problem employees such as Wettlaufer because it would also mean taking on the Ontario Nurses’ Association, the union for the profession, Van Quaethem said.