The damning report on the first wave of COVID-19 in CHSLDs in Quebec has sparked many reactions and revived wounds in families affected by the death of a loved one from the virus.
• Read also: Nothing had been done to prepare the CHSLDs
Angry and Exhausted
For Moira Davis, whose father Stanley E. Pinnell is one of the victims of the private CHSLD Herron, the recommendations of the Ombudsperson, Marie Rinfret, are interesting, but the government must still implement them.
“As long as the government does not accept its share of responsibility for what happened, nothing will be done,” she laments.
Photo courtesy Moira Davis
Stanley E. Pinnell
“I am angry and exhausted to see [les ministres, les PDG et les autres responsables] take no blame and always put the blame on others ”, continues Mr.me Davis.
She is not surprised that this report from the Ombudsperson contradicts the government’s version of its management of the pandemic.
Despite all the inquiries and public hearings, too many questions remain unanswered, she adds, believing that the whole truth has not been told.
NOT AMAZED
Courtesy photo
Beverly spanier
Aged 77 and living at the CHSLD Maimonides in Montreal, Beverly Spanier is not surprised by Ms. Rinfret’s findings. She experienced the first wave of COVID-19 in a CHSLD and says she saw the lack of preparation and protective equipment for employees.
“There is still a lack of personnel and medical care here,” says Ms. Spanier, believing that little has changed a year and a half later.
TOO SAD TO READ IT
Photo Chantal Poirier
Tamara Boivin-Nantel
Tamara Boivin-Nantel is still too angry and sad to read the Ombudsperson’s report.
The young woman lost her father in a Montreal CHSLD in the spring of 2020, when he contracted COVID-19 and he was never transferred to the hospital, despite his repeated requests.
“It might have saved him,” she breathes. His 63-year-old father, Mario Boivin, was finishing his chemotherapy treatments for cancer and had just been transferred to a CHSLD just before the pandemic.
He was weak, but “made strong,” according to his daughter, who simply wished her father had been given the chance to try and beat the virus.
” NOTHING WAS DONE ”
Photo Cédérick Caron
Paul G. Brunet
“I did not expect so much, but that confirms my claims”, reacted yesterday, the president of the Council for the protection of the sick (CPM), Me Paul Brunet.
The lawyer recently revealed that he had filed a complaint with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), arguing that seniors who died in CHSLDs during the first wave were victims of “criminal negligence”.
“I said it under oath: there is nothing valid that was done for the elderly before the end of April and the beginning of May 2020.”
According to Me Brunet, we did not deal with what the World Health Organization (WHO) was saying at the time.
“We did not screen the elderly. The hecatomb followed. “
MORE TEMPERATE FAMILIES
Other families are much less shocked.
In Cap-Saint-Ignace, near Montmagny, Marc Langlois affirms that no staff member left the CHSLD, even in the worst of the crisis.
Weakened by Alzheimer’s, her sister died in November 2020.
“We should not compare our CHSLD to Herron. In a locality like ours, I have never been afraid of the care that my sister may have received, even at the start of the pandemic, ”says Mr. Langlois.
“I don’t think anyone could have done better,” adds François Gaudreau, spouse of the deceased.
In Quebec, another family is not ready to blame the government.
André Falardeau, 98, survived COVID-19, but died shortly after at CHSLD Paul-Triquet, an establishment where many patients have died.
Courtesy photo
André Falardeau
“It’s a somewhat unexpected crisis. The government was caught off guard. It’s hard to blame both. Normally, there are precedents and this time, there were none, ”concludes his son Raymond.