MONTREAL – The family of an elderly veteran is frustrated that an orderly is continuing to work in a Gatineau hospital after allegedly verbally abusing a patient.
“He treated a very sick, helpless man and his family in a way that nobody would want their family to be treated,” Steve Long told Global News.
“He yelled at my mother-in-law, who was seeing her husband in a sick, maybe dying state . . . and told her not to speak to him in English.”
Long is the son-in-law of 77-year-old John Gervais, a retired Navy vet who has been battling cancer.
Gervais was in the emergency ward at the Gatineau Hospital with his family on Saturday night when the incident took place.
His wife, Iris Beeler-Gervais, asked for help from an orderly so that her husband could use the bathroom.
The orderly addressed Mr. Gervais, demanding, “Pee or poo, pee or poo?”
After attempting to move the sick man, some water spilled on the orderly’s sneakers, which is when he got upset.
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“This isn’t a hotel,” he exclaimed.
Shocked, Mrs. Gervais asked him how he could speak to an ill patient in this way and that’s when she was told that in Quebec, she must speak in French.
Ironically, Mr. Gervais was unilingually French until he joined the Navy when he was 16 and learned English, but for the family, the problem wasn’t about language.
They believe that the way Mrs. Gervais was treated by the orderly would have been incredibly difficult for her husband.
“The blow was mainly to his wife, who he loves and adores and who he has taken care of his whole life,” Long said.
“Now he can’t take care of her and he’s not in a position to stand up for her and a young, healthy, arrogant orderly is insulting her.”
Despite everything, the family insist that the issue was the fact that orderly was not removed from his duties.
“In this case, language was used as a weapon . . . but it’s not really an issue about language,” Long said.
“It’s a matter of an employee who is ill-suited to work with people who need his help and management not really dealing with it in the way they’re supposed to.”
Hospital officials have confirmed that an investigation is ongoing.
The family have filed a formal complaint to the hospital and the ombudsman. Read the letter in its entirety here:
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