“She was sacrificed,” said the son of a patient who died from COVID-19 on Sunday. He believes that his mother would still be alive if she had not been transferred to a CHSLD in order to free up hospital beds.
“It’s a matter of principle: we don’t send people to the slaughterhouse,” said Daniel Rouleau in an interview with The newspaper the day after his mother died.
Lise Giroux, 80, contracted COVID-19 at the Yvon-Brunet Accommodation Center in Ville-Émard, one of the city’s residences struggling with a major virus outbreak.
photo-source position-absolute"> Chantal Poirier pictures
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Daniel Rouleau, son of Lise Giroux in front of the Yvon-Brunet center, where a van came to collect the remains of other victims yesterday.
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The establishment counted 94 cases yesterday, including 17 deaths, according to the CIUSSS-du-Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
Ms. Giroux entered the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM) on February 27 after falling a few times in her apartment. The doctors then discovered a panoply of problems, in particular with the liver and the pancreas.
Suspecting that she would lose her autonomy once she left, her family put her on the waiting list for a CHSLD in the Center-Sud district.
She was starting to get better when she was told that she could no longer stay at the CHUM, says Rouleau.
“I was told like this: she will have to leave faster than expected because they need places in the hospital,” he said.
photo-source position-absolute"> Photo courtesy
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The ladder he set up on April 8 to see his mother through her bedroom window, four days before she died.
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Since the start of the pandemic, hundreds of seniors treated at the hospital have been transferred to CHSLDs to free up beds to deal with the coronavirus wave.
On Friday, the government announced that it was ending the practice, with CHSLD outbreaks now being the main challenge for the Quebec healthcare system. But it was already too late for Lise Giroux.
As there was not yet a place in the center of her choice, she was transferred to the CHSLD Yvon-Brunet on March 26.
The staff then assured Mr. Rouleau that “everything was fine”, that there was no contagion in this establishment.
On April 5, Lise Giroux learned that she had COVID-19. On Sunday, she passed away.
“To have known, I would have said no. I would have brought her home, he says. I am angry because I have not been told the truth, “he believes. The man said he did not blame the employees of the center, but rather the system.
He began to have doubts about the risks of contamination when he learned that his mother could still walk in the corridors of the center and that many residents did.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he exclaims.
On Wednesday, Mr. Rouleau and his brother went outside the center with a ladder to put a poster in their mother’s window: a drawing of a rainbow made by his granddaughter.
On Saturday, he was able to see his face for the last time via Skype. “I think she suspected she was going to leave. ”
This woman was “the person who helped everyone,” he said. Despite her walking difficulties, she still had many beautiful years ahead of her.
“She was fucked up when she got there [au centre] “, He sums up. If she had been kept in the hospital, “she would be with us today, I’m 100% sure.”
At the CHUM, we say that we follow the ministry’s directives on transfers. None has happened in the past few days, says communications advisor Sylvie Robitaille.
For its part, the CIUSSS-du-Center-Sud-de-l’ile-de-Montréal explains that it cannot comment on Ms. Giroux’s specific case.
“But all decisions are made in order to protect the safety of users and staff,” says spokesperson Jean Nicolas Aubé.
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