Poor nursing home care led to mother’s death: son

Gilbert Vachon travelled nearly 5,000 kilometres from his home in Kelowna, B.C., to participate in parliamentary hearings on living conditions in Quebec nursing homes.

Vachon wants the commission to take note of what happened to his mother, so it will never happen to anyone else in a long-term facility.

Gilberte Lemieux, 83, had moved into a St-Eustache nursing home in March 2010 following a stroke that had left her capable of using a walker but partially paralyzed and in need of help for all daily activities.

Lemeiux died a year later, April 1, 2011. She had a painful, festering bedsore that grew in size over six months to three inches in diameter and went deep, straight to her tailbone, the final segment of the spine. Staff changed the dressing on the wound but failed to alert the treating doctor.

As Lemieux’s health de- clined and she became despondent and refused to eat, the physician prescribed painkillers and anti-depressants. Noonetoldhimof thebedsore, and he didn’t examine her.

Quebec coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier reported that Lemieux died because the facility failed to provide her with proper care. By the time Lemieux was transferred to a hospital, it was too late, Rudel-Tessier wrote:

“Mme Lemieux should not have died in that way and at that time. Her death could have been avoided.”

Vachon is among several individuals and groups participating in the public consultations that got underway in Quebec City this week to examine a broad range of issues affecting long-term care, from wait-lists and funding, to training of personnel, staff shortages and elder abuse.

“It’s too late for my mother,” Vachon said. “But I’m taking every opportunity to speak up and say what happened. I’m doing it for those who are living in the same situation.”

Although his mother complained that her back “hurt so much like it was on fire,” it was only after Lemieux had been transferred to a hospital that her children discovered the extent of her injury. Vachon said his mother was living in a home that was supposed to look after her. As it stands now, “no one is responsible for what happened,” Vachon said. “But it’s not an isolated case.”

Quebec coroners investigated 27 suspicious deaths in nursing homes between 2006 and 2011. Seniors have died of scalding, hypothermia, drug overdoses and strangulation. They’ve plunged out of windows and toppled down stairs. They’ve been killed by cleaning chemicals left in their bathrooms and by the bed mechanisms designed to keep them safe. They’ve also died of injuries and infections under circumstances too vague to assign blame.

“This is unacceptable,” said Pierre Blain, execu- tive director of the patients’ rights group, the Regroupement provincial des comités d’usagers.

Management has to guarantee patients get proper services, he said.

“From my point of view, what’s missing right now is quality control and, with it, accountability,” Blain said. “When we go to the commission, we will be talking about qualitycontrol—that’swhere the emphasis should be.”

Blain said he hopes the hearings do not turn into a “freak show.” The current system functions well, he said, apart from a few individual cases, and the problem of inadequate staffing ratio of employees to patients, especially at night.

The hearings are to resume Feb. 11.

Anyone can contribute to the hearings via an online questionnaire: http://bit. ly/1fWCvTc