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Another seniors’ home class action lawsuit has been filed in Quebec after 67 residents reportedly died after contracting COVID-19.
The lead plaintiff, Jean-Pierre Daubois, claims his mother and other residents died and contracted the illness after operators of CISSS de Laval forced nurses to continue to work at the CHSLD Saint-Dorothée facility even after showing symptoms of the virus. According to CBC News, 164 cases of coronavirus were reported at the seniors’ home.
According to the seniors’ home class action lawsuit, Jean-Pierre’s 94-year-old mother contracted the disease and died on April 3.
The proposed seniors’ home class action lawsuit alleges that those living at CHSLD Saint-Dorothée were “treated in a faulty, negligent and unsafe manner.” The plaintiff is seeking damages amounting to thousands of dollars for each resident, alive or deceased, regardless of whether they contracted COVID-19 or not. In addition, the plaintiff is seeking $1 million in exemplary damages.
Specifically, the plaintiff is seeking $30,000 for each infected seniors’ home resident, along with $10,000 for their children. Spouses of residents who died of COVID-10 should receive $100,000, says the complaint and their children should receive $30,000.
According to CBC News, the seniors’ home can house up to 285 residents. A nurse reportedly exhibited symptoms of coronavirus, but says she was forced to go to work anyway. The seniors’ home class action lawsuit alleges that the nurse experienced these symptoms and reported them to the seniors’ home six days after the province called for isolation of those experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
That day, however, she reportedly wore a mask and gloves to interact with patients, but did not while preparing patients’ medications. She later tested positive for COVID-19.
In addition, the nurse reported that the facility failed to provide adequate protective equipment for staff and that employees were attempting to bring in their own gear.
The proposed seniors’ home class action lawsuit alleges that another employee, an attendant, was forced to show up to the senior’s home to work during this time as well.
CBC News reports that the nurse’s complaints were reviewed by the regulatory agency, which ultimately took over the seniors’ home.
This is not the first proposed class action lawsuit filed against a Quebec nursing home over allegations that the facility failed to properly protect residents from the coronavirus pandemic. The daughter of a woman who died from COVID-19 has lodged a lawsuit against Residence Herron in Montreal. She is seeking millions in damages for the estates of those who died, along with current residents and family members.
Senior’s Homes A Hotspot for Coronavirus in Quebec
According to CBC News, as of April 11, 2020, about half of all Quebec’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in the province’s public nursing homes. Older people are more susceptible to contracting the disease and suffer more complications and death, say experts, along with those who have preexisting health conditions.
Despite senior’s homes being particularly susceptible to contracting the coronavirus, CBC News reports that Quebec facilities have been especially hard hit in a way that could have been prevented, according to experts.
According to experts, there are a number of practices that reportedly exacerbated the susceptibility of nursing homes in Quebec to contracting the virus. First, nurses and other senior home care staff often work in a number of different senior’s homes. If one employee is infected, then they can spread the disease to many other facilities.
The CBC reports that the practice continued even after families were prohibited from visiting residents in March. It wasn’t until the week of April 11 that the premier of the province banned nursing home employees from working at several residences.
Quebec’s public senior’s homes have been plagued with complaints over the years, many of which could have added to the severity of the coronavirus outbreaks in the residences. Short staffing has been a common complaint, according to the CBC News report.
In addition, many homes are very large making it difficult for staff to keep up.
Experts also told CBC News that, originally, seniors’ homes were not seen as a priority in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Emergency rooms and hospitals were identified as needing additional support, but authorities fail to identify nursing homes as a potential hotspot for transmission of the virus.
Now, they say they know, but this is after COVID-19 ravaged the elderly residents of the facilities.
Have you or a loved one been affected by coronavirus in a seniors’ home or care facility? Tell us your story in the comment section below!
The plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Martin Ménard.
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One thought on Seniors’ Home Class Action Lawsuit Filed After Nurses Forced to Work Sick
My Mom passed away in le Eden CHSLD in Laval on April 22, 2020.
We trusted the system would protect her. We thought this would be the safest place for her to be.
We were wrong! We sent an ambulance to get her out and it was refused. She died alone, isolated, left dehydrated.
Many many things were so wrong!
They were so severely short staffed they weren’t even able to take calls.
A volunteer news reporter finally connected us with her the night before she died. It was heartbreaking to say goodbye via FaceTime. It was frustrating.
We had a meeting with the Doctor on the front grounds! We wanted to see our Mom!
There is much much more to our story!
We would like to join a class action lawsuit for the inhumane way my Mom died, the lack of care, lack of protection. We were kept in the dark to the point we called senior abuse hotline to find out what to do.
They said to send an ambulance, but they were refused at the door!!
We were distraught about the whole situation!
My Mom had Alzheimer’s but she still recognized her family. She was able bodied, healthy and mobile! Infact they used this against her! As she walked a lot and they didn’t like it!!!
If we didn’t go she would be stuck in the space of 4 walls walking around the square for hours.
We were supposed to move her away from Le Eden as we did not like how they neglected her needs.
We were in the process of trying to find another spot in a facility that would allow her to go outside in a protective area.
Dogs are treated better than our seniors, as they are walked at least once a day. My Mom would not go outside unless we took her out when we visited her. They said they had noone available to do that! Imagine!
It was such a bad facility. And they went against our wishes to medicate her just to make their lives easier.
She would get severely sick when new medication was introduced to her. Diarrhea and vomiting. We think they gave her something to prevent her from walking around during the start of the outbreak and this made her sick. So they put her with all the other patients they thought had COVID. We asked if they have her something, but they lied to us before! They expressed on the phone they were annoyed by her walking around!
Something needs to be done and our government won’t do anything unless we the citizens make them accountable for their lack of protection and care of our most vulnerable seniors during the pandemic!