Officials too quick to blame COVID-19 for deaths at Montreal care home: witness
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MONTREAL — An auxiliary nurse told a coroner’s inquest today that health authorities were too quick to blame COVID-19 for deaths in a Montreal-area long-term care home when some of them were in fact caused by dehydration and malnourishment.
The assistant nurse who worked at Résidence Herron says those responsible for the facility — whether management or public health officials — found it easier to cite COVID-19 than admit some residents died due to a lack of staffing.
The witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, also criticized staff who quit their jobs during the pandemic’s first wave when there was no one else to care for residents.
And she said managers with the regional health authority who came to assist provided contradictory instructions and were not at residents’ besides.
