As many as 14 cognitively impaired seniors have been forced to urgently relocate because their private seniors’ residence has closed, over neglect in the care of a 97-year-old woman.
“It is not with lightness of heart that such decisions are taken,” the CIUSSS de l’Estrie – CHUS told TVA Nouvelles in a press release, specifying that it could not go into details for reasons of confidentiality.
The owners of the Clé d’Or in Sherbrooke, Claudette Marcoux and Claude Jacques, had their certification of compliance withdrawn following the death of a nonagenarian on the night of March 21 to 22.
The condition of the 97-year-old woman, who suffered a broken hip last February, reportedly deteriorated rapidly in the days leading up to her death.
Thus, the CIUSSS would have “reasonable grounds to believe that the operator engages in practices or tolerates a situation which constitutes a danger to their health or safety”, he continued in writing.
For his part, Claude Jacques categorically denied having acted badly and denounced the cavalier way in which his 14 beneficiaries were uprooted from their living environment to be sent to other private residences for seniors (RPA).
In a letter, he also mentioned that the beneficiaries moved with a notice of 48 to 72 hours had a dramatic experience; residents left crying, screaming and reaching out.
The residence housed a dozen suites and rooms adapted for people with loss of autonomy. An employee, still in shock, indicated that she did not understand this decision, explaining that to her knowledge, the owners took good care of their residents.
On the phone, Claude Jacques would thus have defended himself from having acted badly or from having been negligent, explaining that he had only respected the wishes of the spouse and the niece of the aphasic lady and suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Her relatives would have asked her to spend the last days of her life at the residence with all the attention that her situation required – and not in a hospital corridor, he explained.
Still according to his words, he would be accused of having administered Dilaudid to the lady to relieve her end-of-life pain, a drug which was however prescribed to her by a doctor.
Too angry, the owners of the Golden Key did not want to say if they intend to challenge the decision of the authorities.
In the meantime, a coroner’s inquest will try to shed light on the death of the 97-year-old lady.
“The CIUSSS is sensitive to the impact that such news can have and the concerns it can cause for people and their families,” and will continue to support them, said its spokesperson, Annie-Andrée Émond.
-With information from Jean-François Desbiens, TVA Nouvelles