Eighty-one-year-old Zubeda Saeed has been a resident at a CHSLD long-term care facility in Pointe-aux-Trembles since March 8th. But her son, Ahmed, says only recently have nurses at the home stopped administering Saeed with her prescription drugs because the resident is refusing.
But Ahmed says that’s because his mother suffers from dementia and isn’t able to make cognitive decisions.
“How can you trust her? She has dementia. How can you authorize that? That’s the procedure we’re putting in place, she has her rights. That was their answer, she has rights. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Ahmed told Global News.
He says the CHSLD recently changed its procedures and nurses are not administering Saeed’s medication because she’s refusing to take them.
“I find it terrible. I mean, I never been treated like this. Yesterday, I was here from 12 to 6 o’clock. I was so scared because at 12 o’clock they didn’t give her pills,” he said.
Ahmed says his mother suffered two strokes and has heart conditions as well as other medical complications.
But Christian Merciari, a spokesperson for the regional health board, the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, told Global News the procedures hadn’t changed and in an email he wrote that residents have the right to refuse medication and staff cannot force them to take it, “Unless they have obtained the authorization of the court to override this categorical refusal, in a situation of emergency or hygiene care,” he wrote.
Patients’ rights’ advocate Paul Brunet agrees, telling Global News, “Was she declared unfit or no? If she wasn’t, she is still able to decide what she wants or doesn’t want. And that, even the son must respect that,” he said.
Ahmed plans to have his mother’s proof of dementia transferred to the CHSLD from a local hospital and he’s requested that she undergo a new medical evaluation from the residence’s physician.
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