>MONTREAL — Thirty-one people were found dead in less than a month at a nursing home in
Montreal, at least five confirmed to have coronavirus — a powerful Canadian emblem of
how nursing homes are among the places hardest hit by the pandemic.

In the United States 17 bodies were recently discovered at a long-term care facility
in New Jersey, among 68 deaths linked to the residence, 26 confirmed as coronavirus cases.
And it was at a long-term care facility in Kirkland, in Washington state, that Americans
first got a glimpse of the horrors to come after residents fell ill with Covid-19 in late
February.

The phenomenon has been seen across Europe as well. In Spain,soldiers sent to disinfect
nursing homes found people abandoned, or even dead, in their beds. Italy, Britain and
France have acknowledged that their official statistics have overlooked many virus-related
deaths in long-term care facilities.

The deaths in Canada were discovered late last week at Résidence Herron, a private home
for seniors in Montreal, after the local health authority, alarmed by staff shortages
and the spread of coronavirus at the home, took control of the residence.

They found dehydrated residents lying listless in bed, unfed for days, with excrement
seeping out of their diapers.
“I’d never seen anything like it in my 32-year nursing career”said Loredana Mule,
a nurse on the team.
“It was horrific — there wasn’t enough food to feed people, the stench could’ve
killed a horse.”

After she left the home, she said, she collapsed in her car and wept.
A skeleton staff of two nurses had been left to care for a private residence with
nearly 150 beds, she said. The remaining staff had fled amid the outbreak of the
coronavirus, leaving patients, some paralyzed or with other chronic illnesses, to
fend for themselves.

In announcing the deaths on Saturday, François Legault, the premier of Quebec, said
there appeared to be “gross negligence.”

12/05/20

July 10, 2020