Lawyer denies Wettlaufer hired after being blacklisted
Earlier, agency executive said serial killer got job because of name mix-up
Acompany that operates several nursing homes has denied dramatic allegations that it had placed Elizabeth Wettlaufer on a “do not hire” list before the nurse was revealed as a serial killer.
A public inquiry had heard on Thursday that the company, Revera Long Term Care, had placed Wettlaufer on their “black list” under her maiden name — Elizabeth Parker.
The name difference allowed Wettlaufer to work as a registered nurse at the company’s nursing homes, according to Heidi Wilmot-Smith, president of Lifeguard Homecare, an agency that provided Revera and other long-term-care facilities with registered nurses to fill staff shortages.
At one of the Revera nursing homes, in September 2015, Wettlaufer tried to kill resident Sandra Towler with an injected overdose of insulin.
Wettlaufer worked for Lifeguard from January 2015, until she resigned in September 2016. She spent much of that time working at Revera homes.
Wilmot-Smith testified that the “do not hire” issue came to light after police began investigating Wettlaufer’s crimes in October 2016.
Wilmot-Smith said a senior vice-president of Revera told her that the company had suddenly learned that Wettlaufer was on the list under her maiden name.
“That’s probably why they did not catch it, because Beth was practising under the surname Wettlaufer,” Wilmot-Smith said.
Later in the day in crossexamination, a lawyer for Revera called Wilmot-Smith’s testimony “inaccurate,” adding that Wettlaufer was never on their “do not hire” list.
Jennifer McAleer noted that a different Elizabeth Parker had worked for Revera in Jasper, Alta., from 1986 to 2002. And the Elizabeth Parker in Jasper was never on the “do not hire” list.
In a testy exchange, Wilmot-Smith insisted her recollection of her phone conversation with the Revera vice-president was accurate.
“I wouldn’t have been able to come up with that idea on my own,” she said, referring to the alleged “do not hire” mix-up.
Elizabeth Wettlaufer went by her maiden name until she married in 1997. Her husband applied for and received a divorce in 2008.
The public inquiry is examin- ing numerous systemic failures — and missed red flags — that allowed Wettlaufer to kill eight people in her care while assaulting or trying to kill six others with insulin overdoses.
Wettlaufer first tried to kill a nursing-home resident in 2007 while working at the Caressant Care home in Woodstock, Ont.
She confessed, unprompted, to her crimes in September 2016, ending a two-decade-long career as a registered nurse marked by numerous medication errors, suspensions for incompetence, and murder.
The inquiry heard Thursday about one complaint against Wettlaufer at Caressant Care — where she worked seven years and killed seven residents — when she was seen shaking and “smacking her butt” at a resident. “The resident was in a wheelchair … and (Wettlaufer’s) butt was right at the resident’s head,” said Brenda Black, a personal support worker who witnessed the incident. “It was very disrespectful for the resident.”
Wilmot-Smith said she had no idea Wettlaufer had been fired from two workplaces when she hired her in 2015.
The College of Nurses of Ontario, responsible for protecting the public from bad nurses, was informed of both firings. But when Wilmot-Smith checked Wettlaufer’s standing with the college, she found a spotless public record.
Wilmot-Smith said she called Wettlaufer’s former supervisor at Caressant Care, registered nurse Sandra Flutter, and was told Wettlaufer was a “very caring” nurse. By the time she began working for Wilmot-Smith, Wettlaufer had already killed eight people and assaulted or tried to kill four others.