COVID-19 outbreak hits Montreal long-term care home, families worry about history repeating itself

Son concerned about father in long-term care home Chad Lubelsky is concerned as his father's long-term care home deals with a COVID-19 outbreak and lack of staff.

MONTREAL — Chad Lubelsky visited his father Richard at long-term care home Vigi Reine Elizabeth in Montreal's Côte-Des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce borough on Sunday to help him with dinner.

In the course of that one hour, he says he realized the home is severely short-staffed, and during a COVID-19 outbreak -- a very troubling kind of déjà-vu for families like his.

"They don't have the staffing for the adequate care of the patients," said Lubelsky. "Sometimes, they have three [orderlies] per floor and there are about 30 residents per floor."

Richard has been at the residence for two years and turns 87 on Thursday.

Lubelsky says he worked out that it takes about an hour to give his father a meal. Looking at the bigger numbers, he realized many of the 148 residents' needs are likely not being met.

"That's just one meal, so if you do the math, it clearly is not going to add up that everybody is going to be adequately fed and changed, let alone in and out of bed," he said.

"So, they're not able to meet the most basic needs."

Mary Dunlop's mother Olga Anastassiadis, 88, was infected by the novel coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic. When she found out that the home's Halloween party was abruptly cancelled, she started asking questions.

"I had to insist on knowing what was going on," said Dunlop. "They told me [it was] because of a virus on the second floor, and I said, 'Well, I'm sorry. What kind of a virus is that?'"

Dunlop said the home's administration was slow to admit that it was COVID-19, but eventually said there were two confirmed cases.

She transferred her mother out of the home when the number of COVID-19 cases began rising.

Mary Dunlop moved her mother Olga Anastassiadis out of the CHSLD Vigi Reine Elizabeth long-term care home due to a COVID-19 outbreak combined with a lack of staff. SOURCE: Mary Dunlop

Quebec's Health Ministry reported six positive COVID-19 cases at the home on Nov. 4, and just three days later, that number rose to 13.

The infection rate now sits at nine per cent and the home currently has the highest number of cases in Quebec.

"That's why we started to get very, very concerned," said Dunlop. The cases "did actually end up spreading -- and quite rapidly -- and seeing how the whole thing has been handled, with a lack of PPE [was worrisome]."

The CIUSSS West-Central Montreal says it is aware of the outbreak at Reine-Elizabeth.

"Our CIUSSS is working with management of this private long-term care facility to contain this outbreak," said CIUSSS spokesperson Barry Morgan.

"We have delivered personal protective equipment (PPE) to this facility and we are also screening the residents."

The Vigi Sante owns multiple care homes, including the Vigi Mont-Royal in TMR that is being sued by the daughter of a woman who lived in the facility.

Documents from the suit filed by Evangelina Morfonios claim that 68 residents died during the pandemic due to the care home's neglect.

The patients' family members say they are concerned that what is happening at Reine-Elizabeth could be similar to that at Mont-Royal or the CHSLD Herron in Dorval, where 47 patients died during the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020.

Family members say they have noticed services slipping and minimal staff struggling to keep up.

"What we've seen since the summer is a degrading situation in the level of care and now that there's a COVID-19 outbreak, they're clearly not able to manage it," said Lubelsky, adding staff are working hard, but need help.

"To be clear, the [orderlies] that are there are doing a Herculian job," he said. "They're put in impossible situations, working tirelessly in very difficult conditions with high-needs individuals, so what I can see is a problem with the administration."

CHSLD Vigi Reine Elizabeth's administration has not responded to CTV News' request for comment.

Dunlop says her mother is doing well and being treated with care at the Jewish General Hospital, but she is concerned for those still at the facility.

She said half her mother's floor was infected during the first wave, and many died due to the disease.

"It is very difficult because we did live through it with that exact same place during the first wave and it didn't turn out well," said Dunlop.

Dunlop, Lubelsky and others have written to health authorities, the home's administration and political representatives in the area, but have not seen an improvement in the past months, they say.

"My dad is a Holocaust survivor and grew up in a Siberian work camp," said Lubelsky. "He, and the other residents, deserve better end-of-life care."