Melanie Morris’ 76-year-old mother, Audrey, is one of the dozens of McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre residents who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Morris and her husband, Jeff Balzer, say they’re worried about the lack of staff at the Calgary long-term care home, and say Audrey isn’t having her basic care needs met.
“She hasn’t had a shower since the 14th of March and a lot of times, residents are staying in bed for hours on end,” Morris said.
Morris said her mother has congestion issues and is often lying in the prone position — meaning she’s flat on her stomach — which makes the fluid buildup worse.
“I don’t need her getting pneumonia, especially being positive for COVID-19,” she said.
Morris said she understands the front-line workers are overwhelmed dealing with the outbreak, and is pleading with Alberta Health officials to intervene.
“The lives of people in the home are left hanging in the balance,” she said.
“My mom is struggling, being cognitively aware, she knows what’s going on. These are real people,” Morris said.
Jeff Balzer, Audrey’s son-in-law, said having more staff working at the facility would give them comfort.
“It’s a horrible existence in the home,” Balzer said. “It’s the staffing and communication. Let’s try to get them the best care possible under the circumstances.”
Strangers continue to visit the long-term care home with gestures of hope, giving residents and staff inside silent moral support. They’ve left bouquets of flowers and tied yellow ribbons on the locked gate at the entrance to the facility.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said Thursday there are 65 positive cases at the McKenzie Towne facility, and as a result, introduced new measures that are enforceable by law.
“However, we know that with an incubation period of up to 14 days, we can continue to see new cases that may have been exposed last week or the week before.”
But the Morris family says they’re at the mercy of the authorities and wonder if it’s enough.
“I feel a lot of guilt about not bringing my mom out of there, not looking after her in our home. But she’s medically fragile so that’s hard to deal with every day,” Morris said.
Dr. Rhonda Collins, the chief medical officer of health for Revera which runs the McKenzie Towne facility, said they are doing all they can to manage the outbreak.
“The staff at McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre are working tirelessly to provide compassionate care to our residents in the most difficult of circumstances. We continue to work closely with Alberta Health Services to follow their clinical care directives in managing this unprecedented outbreak,” Collins said.
“We continue our staff recruitment efforts and greatly appreciate the clinical support that Alberta Health Services is providing.”
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