Quebec coroner’s office launches investigation into Montreal long-term-care home, where 31 seniors have died since March 13
The Quebec coroner's office has launched an investigation into a long-term-care home in a suburb of Montreal, where 31 people have died in conditions the province's premier has described as "deplorable."
"Remember that coroners intervene in cases of deaths that are violent, obscure or could have occurred following negligence," the coroner's office said in a statement Sunday.
The investigation was announced after Montreal police on Saturday night entered the Ri(C)sidence Herron, a privately run home with 150 beds in the west-end suburb of Dorval.
Officers from the major crime unit - dressed in protective equipment - emerged Sunday morning having confiscated surveillance tapes and personnel documents, said Montreal police inspector Andri(C) Durocher.
"We're doing a criminal investigation because there were allegations of potential wrongdoing," Durocher told the Star in a phone interview. Police will soon interview witnesses - from home employees to residents - and the investigation will take "weeks or months," he added.
Almost half of Quebec's 328 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in long-term-care facilities. It's a tragedy that has unfolded in nursing homes across Canada.
Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls, Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Seven Oaks in Scarborough, Anson Place Care Centre in Hagersville and Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver have all seen several deaths from COVID-19, among others.
On Saturday, a shaken Premier Franiois Legault called what seems to have occurred at the home "unacceptable."
"It certainly seems like gross negligence," he said.
At least five of the 31 seniors who died at the home since March 13 were infected with the coronavirus. The home is owned and operated by Gatineau-based Katasa Groupe. Phone messages and emails to the company requesting comment were not returned.
"Public health authorities across the country have been strengthening their actions to keep the virus out of these high-risk settings and to bring outbreaks under control," Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said in a statement Sunday.
"These heartbreaking events underscored the need for stringent infection prevention and control measures," Tam added, noting it led to guidelines released Saturday on infection prevention in long-term-care facilities.
That guidance includes strict rules around who can enter such facilities and detailed instructions on how to minimize the chances of an outbreak through proper hygiene and screening.
In Quebec, 313 long-term-care homes are operated by the provincial government, according to Radio Canada. Another 59 are privately run but their fees are set by agreement with the government. A third group of 40 long-term-care homes are private and set their own fees. Legault announced Saturday every home in the third group would be immediately inspected.
"Every effort is being made to protect seniors and avoid tragic situations such as the one observed in the Herron private residential and long-term-care centre that is not covered by an agreement," Quebec's health ministry said in a statement Sunday.
The Herron home set its own fees and is now under government trusteeship. Provincial health authorities first entered the home March 29 and found that it's staff had walked off the job.
That day, nurse Loredana Muli(C) got an urgent call from health authorities asking her to help at Herron. She works at a pharmaceutical company and had placed her name on a list of people willing to volunteer. What she found at Herron that day still shocks her.
She arrived at 5:30 p.m. and was greeted by a manager with a government health agency and an orderly. She was asked to help feed residents. In the first rooms she entered, Muli(C) found trays of cold food and residents begging for water.
"I couldn't spend much time with each patient - a couple of bites, some fluids and then I'd jump to the next room," she said in a phone interview from Montreal.
Another nurse joined shortly afterwards and together, they entered another section of the home.
"The first room we went into, we removed the sheets and they were drenched and soaked in urine and feces," recalled Muli(C), who is 57. "Their sheets were brown to black all the way up to their neck. And I said, 'Oh, boy, this is not an hour or two hours - this is days.' "
"When we were washing them, it was sad because we were trying to wipe off the feces and their skin was on fire. I mean, if we rubbed a little bit more, their skin was going to come off.
"Every room, the stench of urine and feces could have killed a horse " Underneath the sheets is an egg crate to prevent skin breakdown. We had to remove them because it's like a sponge and they were drenched. You could squeeze and all the urine comes out.
"The mattresses were wet, too, but we couldn't do anything about them. So we doubled up the sheets on them so the residents could be comfortable," Muli(C) said.
Muli(C) said she and the other nurse cared for about 60 residents that day, all suffering the same shocking conditions.
"We were speechless," she said. "We just kept looking at each other and saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' We had a mission that evening to get everybody done."
As they worked, other volunteers showed up at the home to help, including a doctor. Muli(C) and the other nurse finished changing diapers and washing residents at 10:30 p.m.
"Then I sat in my car and cried and cried," she said.
The next day - still in shock and as a precaution - Muli(C) called a long-term-care home where her mother lived and insisted she be released to her care. They now live together.