A London, Ont., woman is urging the provincial government to pause the movement of people in long-term care whenever possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After roughly two years on a waiting list, Myrna Allen says the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care finally called on March 19 to say a bed had opened up at McGarrell Place in London for her 91-year-old father.
At that time, Ontario had already declared a state of emergency and announced that schools would remain closed past March Break, and the federal government had announced that the Canada-U.S. border would soon be closing to non-essential travel.
Despite those measures, Allen says the most the ministry offered her was to extend her father’s move-in window from five days to seven — an extension she declined.
Allen is the power of attorney for her father, Wendlin Brotzel, who suffers from dementia and has difficulty hearing.
“He is for the most part deaf. He only hears about 30 per cent of any word that’s spoken,” Allen explained.
“He had a severe brain injury five years ago that he has never fully recovered from. His short term memory is shot. He doesn’t remember the move. He doesn’t remember why he’s in a strange place. He doesn’t realize or remember what this COVID thing has done to the world and he’s wondering where his kids are.”
Allen moved her father from Grand Wood Park to McGarrell Place on March 23 and told Global News she was only allowed to bring seven days’ worth of clothing and was told she’d have to wait to move anything else to the long-term care home.
“In my Dad’s room, I didn’t listen to them, I snuck pictures of our family in so he could at least have that,” she said.
“When I dropped him off, I took a great big piece of cardboard and I wrote, ‘Dear Dad, I know that this is hard. … I’m sorry we can’t be there with you. It’s because of COVID-19. You have to be there. This is your new home. We love you very much.’ And I signed my name and my siblings’ names.
“Last week my Dad was really confused. He called six times a day every day asking why it was there and asking when he could go home. We couldn’t get it through to him that that was his new home and that that’s why he was there and that nobody could go to see him.”
Compounding the stress of moving her father to a new home and not being able to visit was the fact that within five days of the move, she began developing symptoms of COVID-19. She told Global News that she was tested at University Hospital on April 1 and got the swab results back on the morning of April 3.
“The one government body that’s been amazing is the Middlesex-London Health Unit,” she said.
“They’ve called me every day to make sure I’m getting better and not getting worse. They’re helping me through this.”
Allen said on April 7 that she’s had “three good days in a row” and is feeling “much more optimistic” than she was last week.
“The chest pain was by far, far, far the worst. Second to that was this crushing headache,” she said.
“The only thing that is really bothering me right now is the chest. Everybody talks about the chest pain and I’m still battling against that but I’m doing better.”
Allen says she had been isolating at home before she moved her father from Grand Wood Park retirement to McGarrell Place long-term care, both of which are operated by Revera, which reported on April 1 that two residents at Grand Wood had tested positive for COVID-19.
“Both the place that Dad left and the place that he’s gone to, there is one parent company, and the place that Dad left, they’re like family to us. We love them and we’re not criticizing them at all. The place that he’s gone to, it was the place that he chose when he was well,” Allen said.
“Both places are wonderful places, they’ve been great with our family, they’ve been great with Dad.”
Allen says her frustration and concern are focused on the ministry.
“The minister of health and long-term care needs to change the criteria. Just like everything else in this country and in the world — that waitlist needs to stop right now,” she said.
Allen highlighted the recent spate of COVID-19 deaths at a nursing home in Bobcaygeon, asking, “Are they going to try to fill those beds now?”
Global News Radio 980 CFPL has reached out to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, which declined to provide a response.
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