Long-term-care system ‘pathetic’
Families of serial killer’s victims give emotional testimony at inquiry
The families of Elizabeth Wettlaufer’s victims have slammed a long-term-care system that failed to heed the red flags that could have stopped a serial killer.
A distraught Arpad Horvath Jr., whose father was the last of eight nursing-home residents killed by Wettlaufer, told a public inquiry in St. Thomas, Ont., on Monday of the heartbreak and shock he felt when he was told his father had been killed.
“He’d be here today if it wasn’t for the gross incompetence of people,” a tearful Horvath told the provincial inquiry into the safety of residents in long-term care.
Wettlaufer, 50, was fired in March 2014 from the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock, Ont., where she killed seven of her eight victims. The home notified the College of Nurses of Ontario of the firing. But the college, responsible for keeping the public safe from bad nurses, didn’t investigate Wettlaufer, leaving her with a spotless public record.
It was the second time Wettlaufer had been fired. The first was from the Geraldton District Hospital in 1995, after she was high on drugs that she admitted stealing on the overnight shift. The next two decades saw Wettlaufer disciplined multiple times for a litany of medication errors, conflicts with co-workers, poor treatment of residents and shoddy work.
“She had so many bad points, it’s incredible she even made it to Meadow Park,” Horvath said, referring to the London nursing home where Wettlaufer landed a job after being fired from Caressant, and where she murdered his father with an insulin injection in August 2014.
Horvath lashed out at what he insisted was the failure of key players in the long-term-care sector to admit errors.
“They put money and reputation in front of a human life — it’s pathetic,” he said, banging on the lectern. “These are human lives. These are people who meant something to someone.”
Wettlaufer’s rampage through Ontario’s long-term-care system ended only when, unprompted, she confessed in September 2016 to murdering people in her care by injecting them with overdoses of insulin.
The commission also began hearing closing submissions on Monday from the main groups involved in the inquiry.
The provincial government’s written submission promises to improve how medications are handled in nursing homes and strengthen inspections by placing increased focus on the abuse and neglect of residents.
Homes that fail to comply with inspection orders will have admissions suspended more often, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care says. The ministry will also explore setting up an inspection team dedicated to investigating offences that could lead to prosecution.
The ministry also promises to work with regulatory colleges, including the College of Nurses, to draft a common “risk of harm framework” used to oversee all health-care members.
The colleges will also be required to share with the ministry information on members who put patients at risk. Restrictions placed on certificates needed for health-care professionals to practise will be made transparent to employers and the public, the ministry says.
The ministry says a tool will be developed to allow the coroner’s office to detect abnormal trends in “death data,” which could be used to investigate nursing homes. An attempt will also be made to encourage health-sector unions to accept that in some cases, they won’t defend poor-performing members who contest being terminated.
The inquiry has heard that after Wettlaufer grieved her firing at Caressant, managers agreed to a demand from her union, the Ontario Nurses’ Association, to pay her $2,000 in damages. Caressant also agreed to provide a “reference letter.” It called Wettlaufer a “good problem solver.”
The inquiry also heard from Beverly Bertram, a 70-year-old woman Wettlaufer tried to kill in August 2016. Wettlaufer was providing home care for Bertram in Ingersoll when she injected her with insulin. “I no longer know who I am because Elizabeth Wettlaufer consumes my life,” Bertram told the inquiry. “I don’t understand why she was bent and determined to kill me.”
Bertram, who arrived in a wheelchair, stressed that older people who can no longer care for themselves must be treated with dignity. “Now that we’re sick, nobody listens.”