Canada is failing the frail elderly

Re: Cruel treatment, July 4.

I didn’t get beyond the pictures and the first few lines of your article before I burst into tears. This was my dad, who died two years ago of dementia, in another home in another province. He had lived through the Second World War bombings, immigrated to Canada, continued his studies, built a business, raised a family, been a strong community advocate.

But at the end of his life, he had bruises on his body that could not have come from “falling out of bed.” One day, he was escorted out of the facility, like a criminal on a perp walk. The police had been called to move this tiny, 90-lb. man into a waiting ambulance. The family was never advised until after it was over. At the hospital, he was diagnosed as underweight, with a urinary infection, deep bruising and broken skin on his arms, and large and painful sores from inadequate sanitary care. He spent five weeks recovering in the hospital. Then we had to find him another place to live — new surroundings are traumatic for dementia patients so there was more confusion, more anxiety and more pain. And in the end a sad death, which included more suffering than it might have, had the system lived up to its promises.

I just want to highlight that the issues raised in your article go beyond a single facility and a single staff person. This is a systemic failure across the country which is not being given adequate attention from any level of government. We are coasting further and further to a dark future for more and more frail elderly experiencing dementia. There are no simple solutions, but perhaps stories such as the one brought forward about Mr. Karam’s family will have some impact. Marita Moll, Ottawa