Families ask police to investigate home where 70 residents died of COVID-19
Families of a Pickering long-term-care home’s residents — some of whom died during the COVID-19 outbreak — are calling for a criminal investigation into the care their loved ones received at the facility.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Durham Regional Police Chief Paul Martin, the 41 families say what occurred at Orchard Villa is “completely out of proportion to what has occurred in other facilities in this province.”
“Our own observations and what contact we could manage with our loved ones demonstrates that they were malnourished, dehydrated, and not receiving basic care for days, and in some cases weeks,” reads an attachment to the letter, which also alleges that the Orchard Villa residents “did not receive the necessities of life.”
Seventy residents at the 233-bed facility have died of COVID-19, the most deaths recorded at any long-term-care home in Ontario. Another 200 residents and 99 staff members have tested positive for the virus.
Last month, a Star investigation revealed that the home has faced a litany of citations for non-compliance with regulations and ministry orders in the last five years, including requirements that living areas are kept clean and sanitary and to protect residents from staff abuse.
“We take our duty of care for the people in our home incredibly seriously.”
JASON GAY ORCHARD VILLA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
In an email to the Star, Orchard Villa executive director Jason Gay said neither the facility nor its owner, Southbridge Care Homes, have seen the letter from the 41 families, but offered “our sincere condolences to all families who have lost a loved one to COVID-19 in long-term care.”
“Managing this virus has been an immense challenge, for everyone in our home and for everyone who loves them. The most important thing we can do is protect our residents and staff and try to mitigate any risk of transmission,” Gay wrote.
“Orchard Villa was quick to call on our partners in government and health care for help and we are extremely grateful that they answered our call.
“We take our duty of care for the people in our home incredibly seriously.”
Martin confirmed in an emailed statement to the Star that Durham police have received the families’ letter and that he had reviewed the allegations.
“We will be reaching out to the appropriate agencies and oversight bodies to determine the best and most appropriate way to proceed in order to address these concerns,” he wrote.
Last week, the families of two Orchard Villa residents who died of COVID-19, Paul Parkes and George Morrison, filed lawsuits against the home and its owner.
Parkes’s daughter Cathy, who also signed the letter to Durham police, told the Star she first became concerned about her father in mid-April when he mentioned to her that residents were eating meals together even during the lockdown.
She said she didn’t find out from the home that her father had tested positive for COVID-19 until three weeks after he died on April 15 at age 86.
“I cried. I was upset. It was almost a release because I knew he had it and I just needed to see it. I just needed to know,” she said.
“I’m glad we told everyone who was preparing his body that he did, because what a nightmare that would have been if we hadn’t.”
Parkes added that she wants police to investigate things she believes “have been done wrong — things that outside of a long-term-care home would normally be considered criminal, and so therefore inside a long-term-care home should be judged the same way.”
Morrison’s daughter, June Morrison, also signed the letter. George Morrison died at the age of 95 on May 3 in hospital after contracting the coronavirus at Orchard Villa.
She said her father, who lived with dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, was admitted to hospital with apparent anorexia, dehydration and a urinary tract infection. He had lost significant weight, she said, and looked emaciated.
“He didn’t look like my dad. He looked like a prisoner of war.”
Morrison believes her father was not isolated from a roommate who was infected with COVID-19, and that there were insufficient staff members in the home to adequately care for him. “I know my dad suffered,” she said.
Morrison has asked Ontario’s chief coroner to investigate her father’s death, but she also believes police should investigate how the facility was managed.
“The sooner the police get involved, the sooner they can interview the (personal support workers), the nurses and cleaning staff, and the sooner we can get to the bottom of what really went on in there.”