Grace Dart extended care centre

Montreal

Residents about 250

Infected residents 70

Deaths N/A

Infected staff N/A

Staff deaths at least one

Victoria Salvan July 28, 1955-April 17, 2020

COVID-19 killed Victoria Salvan at age 64 when she was on the brink of retirement. An orderly who emigrated to Canada from the Philippines, Salvan was devoted, caring and selfless, her colleagues have said.

“If anyone deserved a retirement, it was her,” said Valerie Verret, who worked with her at the Centre Grace Dart, a long-term care home in Montreal’s east end. Salvan worked as an orderly for 28 years. At the centre, she would often share fruit and check to make sure her colleagues were keeping well. She took extra shifts and, sometimes, she slept there, working longer hours than anyone else, not for a paycheque, but because her personality demanded it.

“She was like our mother,” Verret said. “She was taking care of everyone else, but not herself.”

As COVID-19 swept through Quebec’s long-term care homes, orderlies stood on the front lines. Overworked, underpaid and faced with the threat of the deadly virus, some left their posts.

As Quebec’s first orderly to die of the disease, Salvan has become a symbol for those who have shown up to work each day, comforting the vulnerable while risking their health.

Staffing shortages at longterm care homes were already critical before the pandemic. Now, as the province’s focus turns toward front-line staff like orderlies, the government has introduced pay increases and called in reinforcements to help them, including the Canadian military.

In gestures of thanks, Quebecers note their awe for orderlies’ quiet poise and their willingness to do difficult tasks, like changing diapers and maintaining morale, all while often armed with insufficient personal protective material.

Salvan represented all of that, Verret said.

She began to show symptoms of the virus after working on April 17 and died at home, of COVID-19 complications, a few days later.