VIGI MONT-ROYAL ALLEGATIONS
Unsanitary before crisis, families say
Hearing that the ventilation system broke down at Vigi Mont-royal while most of its residents were stricken with COVID-19 came as little surprise to people who recently saw their loved ones die after having lived at the CHSLD.
They allege the seniors’ residence in Town of Mont Royal was unsanitary before the pandemic broke.
“In the summer it would get so hot in there you could not breathe,” said Pat Markakis, whose 74-year-old husband, Nick, died of COVID-19 at Vigi Mont-royal on April 16. “It’s an old building and there were mice inside it. And every time it rained, the roof leaked. They would put out garbage cans to catch the water. I complained many times and nothing would happen.”
The Vigi Mont-royal is among the CHSLDS hardest-hit by the pandemic on the Montreal island. According to information released by the minister of health and social services this week, 64 residents have died there. However, the same table supplied by the government claims only 52 people at Vigi Mont-royal are currently infected by COVID-19. This contrasts starkly with information posted on the website of Vigi Santé ltée, the company that owns Vigi Mont-royal. On Wednesday, it reported that 156 residents there had COVID -19 and that there were another 26 suspected cases.
When the CHSLD began losing staff members to the virus, the CIUSSS Centre- Ouest-de-l’île-demontréal — the health authority that oversees Vigi Mont-royal — supplied replacements.
“We were concerned that members of our staff deployed to Vigi Mont-royal came down with the virus even though they were wearing the appropriate protective equipment,” Lauren Schwartz, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS, wrote in an email exchange with the Montreal Gazette. “As a result, we brought in our infectious disease experts as well as an air-quality specialist to investigate. It was determined that the ventilation system was malfunctioning. We ensured the system was repaired and can now confirm it is functioning properly.”
Earlier this week, the Féderation interprofessionelle de la santé du Québec-fiq, a part of a nurse’s union that represents members in the private sector, took Vigi Santé to court seeking an injunction to have air-quality inspections done at two other CHSLDS that it owns — Vigi Dollard-des- Ormeaux and Vigi Reine Elizabeth.
Vigi Santé supplied the Montreal Gazette with a copy of the ruling made by Superior Court Justice Robert Castiglio this week. Castiglio decided to not issue the injunction because Vigi Santé agreed to do the emergency tests just before the case was brought before him.
Union president Sonia Mancier said she is disappointed because what she really wanted for her members working at the two other CHSLDS was to be supplied with additional protection now, including N95 masks. Castiglio ruled the nurses will have to wait for the test results before they are supplied with more than the standard personal protection equipment they work in now. The results are expected within days.
“What I really wanted was the equipment,” Mancier said. “It bothers me. Based on what happened at Vigi Mont-royal we cannot just cross our fingers and hope for the best.”
Éric Seguin, the lawyer who represented Vigi Santé in the injunction, acknowledged what is happening at Vigi Mont-royal is “incredibly difficult.” But, he added, there are no signs the ventilation systems at the other two CHSLDS are malfunctioning.
“There is no evidence of a problem,” Seguin said. “But (the tests) will be done to address the question.”
Markakis, who is considering a lawsuit against Vigi Santé, said that before the pandemic broke she would go to Vigi Mont-royal seven days a week to look after her husband, who suffered from dementia brought on by Alzheimer’s.
“I had to be there every single day,” Markakis said. “They didn’t have enough staff. They would leave food in his room and leave and it would go uneaten. Sometimes his lips would be all dried up (from dehydration). I believe they have all passed away.”
Nia Morfonios’s mother died on April 28 at the Jewish General Hospital, where she was transferred after contracting COVID -19 at Vigi Mont-royal. Morfonios is also considering filing a lawsuit.
“It was unsanitary. It was disgusting,” Morfonios said of the conditions her parents lived in at Vigi Mont-royal before the pandemic spread.
Her 91-year-old father died there in January.
“It always smelled putrid, like urine and feces,” Morfonios said. “The residents would be left in diapers from morning to night. They would be left in the hallways to sleep and their clothes were often stolen.”
They would put out garbage cans to catch the water (that leaked from the roof). I complained many times.