COVID restrictions hurting people in care facilities

By Letter to the Editor on July 8, 2020.

On March 18 I sat with my husband in the Great Room of St. Michael’s Long Term Care. We ate pizza and drank Diet Pepsi and talked about how and what to plant in the garden this year.

On March 19 when I returned for my daily visit I was refused entry into the facility. Several phone calls later I was sitting in my car crying my eyes out because I was told I was denied entry to visit my husband.

In the late afternoon of May 20 I was finally allowed into the facility to my husband’s room. I was shocked at the state that he was in! He was almost comatose. There was no sign of recognition in his eyes, he was non-responsive and non-verbal. I cannot put into words the feelings and emotions of the next two days.

On May 22 my husband passed away. My husband died because he gave up on life. He did not understand the COVID restrictions, he just felt he had been deserted.

Where is the care and compassion of people in these facilities?

Why was I not informed about his condition sooner?

I should have been allowed into that facility when he still had a chance to live. I believe he would still be alive today if I had been allowed in to visit him sooner than I was.

Something has to be done about people in care facilities failing and dying because of these restrictions.

Shirley Olsen

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