My amazing Mum was in good health, no pain, paying $5000/month for [we thought] top-notch care and to be kept safe. Well, management dropped the ball, kicked it across town to another agency, who also dropped the ball, passed the buck - not telling us anything or bullshitting us. For those $$ you'd think you'd get the best care and decent food. Not so. I honestly think she would've been safer next door in the hotel for $125/night max and still have $50/day for food; towels and bedding changed daily, bathroom cleaned daily. Instead, Mum was getting meals brought up on a tray and left at her door. The management kept slipping long and convoluted letters under the doors of ALL residents many - like Mum - with impaired vision, memory loss and cognitive difficulties. The morning they found Mum in a bad state - paramedics were called and they didn't take the envelope with all her instructions, phone numbers, etc. One person said they weren't allowed to touch or take anything; another said they hadn't heard of that rule. Then they said probable UTI (probable more BS), possible RSV and possible Covid19. She had a cough and no fever and they put her on oxygen and ran tests including Covid19 which, they say, came back negative. They then moved her either to or from the acute ward to Covid19 ward and she was now a bit more alert, not eating much, still on oxygen but with "gurgly" lungs. But, remember, they said negative to Covid19 yet they were going to do more tests. Didn't happen. Next thing, she is "gone". They say some kind of pneumonia likely one of the manifestations of Covid19. Mum didn't deserve to die like that. Criminal negligence! More lies about cause of death so they don't panic or scare the other residents, presumably, and protect their precious reputation. If this is a first-rate aged care home (in Canada) I shudder to think what the budget places are like. And - the icing on the bullshit mound - today I get an update email from the GM of the home (who knew Mum had died as she phoned my sister today to offer her condolences) - one of the "Happy Families/Aren't We All Wonderful" updates about how there are NO problems, they have lots to CELEBRATE and happy-everyone photos and stories but no mention of my mother. Nothing. Not even a lie that she had died of pneumonia not Covid19 related. This is why I don't trust anyone and I am devastated. Like in all wars, truth is the first casualty. Insensitivity is the next.
