Grieving daughter demands answers
A grieving daughter is demanding answers after her mum died from COVID in an East Kilbride care home.
Ruth Gibson, 54, claims most of her family lost the chance to say a final goodbye to 94-year-old Anna, who was a resident in South Lanarkshire Councilrun Meldrum Gardens.
The gran of three and great-gran of two died on November 15 just, hours after Ruth was allowed in to the home.
Anna tested positive for COVID the day before.
Ruth is now questioning the care given prior to her death after watching her mum, who she says had relatively few health complaints, deteriorate during Skpe calls.
She has now instructed solicitors at Slater and Gordon in a bid to find out more.
Just 12 months previously she had been sitting at the table with family enjoying Christmas dinner.
In November Ruth saw a decline in Anna’s health and a rapid downturn from November 9.
But she claims her concerns over her mum’s declining health were dismissed by the home.
She also believes her mum was showing signs of the virus which were missed prior to the positive test.
“I phoned everyone I could trying to get assistance, the Care Inspectorate, social work, the doctor saying ‘I think my mum is at end of life,’ she looked that bad,” Ruth said.
Ruth visited her mum almost every day but when lockdown was introduced last March, Ruth was forced to use daily Skype calls as a means to stay in touch.
She claims window visits offered to other families were never offered to her or her sister.
But it was during the second wave of the pandemic that Ruth really began to notice her mum’s significant weight loss.
Ruth noticed Anna was struggling to stay upright in the chair while they were on Skype.
She would regularly fall asleep mid-conversation and had started drooling.
Ruth also noticed black marks around Anna’s mouth, lips and chin – and her mum had become very drowsy, unable to eat or even swallow her medication.
But after learning of the positive COVID test on November 14, Ruth claims staff were “abrupt” on the phone, but allowed her to visit at a distance for 10 minutes the next day.
Ruth went on: “At this point I was really concerned for my mum – the staff seemed to dismiss my concerns and said the symptoms were pretty regular for COVID-19. They said she would rally round.
“When I went in to see her I was shocked to see her in person. I wasn’t allowed to go near her – but I could see she wasn’t able to even move.
“Her eyes were staring at the TV but didn’t seem to be registering. Her body was still but her lungs were gasping for breath. She couldn’t even look in my direction.
“Once again I was told she would ‘pick up’ and it was just part and parcel of the virus.
“I was concerned and asked the staff for assistance over and over again. But they kept saying we weren’t at that stage yet. I accepted what they were saying. When I left the home that day I passed rooms that had their doors closed with signs on saying the occupant was infected.
“I was so traumatised at what I had seen I allowed myself to be influenced by care home staff who minimised mum’s condition.”
Ruth added: “I was the one who had to phone the doctor – not the home – and she visited the Friday before she died.
“Mum was only tested for COVID by default – a member of staff tested positive. The symptoms should have been picked up sooner.
“There was also family that wanted to be with her if it came to an end-of-life stage – although we were assured this wasn’t the case.
“The care home have to take responsibility for that. However, that’s unfixable, we can’t go back and change that mum died alone.”
Ruth also claims her mum was given no oxygen to aid her breathing and staff could not even tell her the time of death.
The family have also dismissed an internal investigation by SLC which they say was “vague, misleading, overlooks crucial factors and doesn’t answer anything”.