Northwood long-term care home in Halifax is dealing with the largest coronavirus outbreak in the Maritimes.
Of the 985 positive cases in Nova Scotia, about one-third are at Northwood.
The province announced another death at the long-term care home Monday, bringing the total number of deaths in the facility to 32.
At last count, 16 patients have recovered from the disease at Northwood and have been moved from an intensive care unit to a recovery unit at a local hotel.
One of those recovered patients is 100-year-old Kathleen Murphy, known as Kay to her friends and “nanny” to her grandchildren.
Diagnosed with COVID-19 two weeks ago, her family was preparing for the worst.
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“At first we weren’t so positive about it,” said daughter, Cathy Walker. “My sister and I were so upset….she was 100 and so we were thinking, how are you going to beat it?”
The diagnosis was hard to take, and to make matters worse, the family couldn’t visit.
“She was 100 years old and she is in the long-term care facility where unfortunately they’ve been really hard hit, so it was hard to stay positive,” said granddaughter Jen Warrington.
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However, Kay, who turned 100 on March 22, kept making progress. Her breathing and lung condition improved and her appetite came back.
In a way, the family wasn’t so surprised.
“Every day when we called we would get a little bit better news,” said Walker, who was the contact person for the rest of the extended family.
Then on Saturday, the family got the call they were waiting for.
Kay — or ‘super nanny,’ as the family is now calling her — had recovered.
“This weekend was supposed to be the weekend we celebrate her 100th birthday all together, unfortunately, that couldn’t happen so we are going to do another big zoom call,” said Warrington.
The family hopes to have nanny Kay in front of a tablet with her extended family for an online face-to-face session, but in the meantime, the family can’t thank the Northwood staff enough for providing care and aiding the recovery.
“We see them, as they are family too and we appreciate everything that they do,” said Walker.
Over the weekend, Northwood president and CEO Janet Simm shared condolences to the families of those who had passed as well as an update on the pandemic.
“I want to ensure you that our ongoing commitment to safety is there and making sure that we are providing quality care for your loved ones,” said Simm.
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