UPDATE AT 6:00pm WEDNESDAY: Cassie Drapeau reports that her mother and her two aunts are now allowed in to visit their mother, one at a time.
Cassie Drapeau spent the cold night in her car outside South Centennial Manor in Iroquois Falls, waiting and hoping to see her dying grandmother inside.
But because Simone Lefebvre is isolated in a COVID-19 room with five others, she can’t get in.
“She deserves to have her family beside her as she passes, as anybody should,” Drapeau states. “Nobody should die alone.”
Manor administration says it’s trying to accommodate Drapeau, but having several residents with COVID-19 makes it a real challenge.
Drapeau invites anyone to join her in the parking lot.
“We need to stick together for our seniors’ rights,” she says. “Like what if this is your Mom next or your Grandma next?”
Drapeau was allowed a Facetime session with her grandmother this morning, but says it’s not enough.
“Nobody should die alone,” she reiterates. “Everybody should have the right to have their family beside their bedside.”
Here is a statement from Paul Chatelain, CEO of the MICS health care group, which operates SCM:
“Sadly, (Drapeau) cannot visit her grandmother in person because the resident is cohort in a COVID room, which would put the other residents at risk. She was just able to FaceTime her grandmother however.
We have one palliative care room at the manor, however it is occupied.
This is a sad situation for everyone including our staff who know the resident and family. We are doing our best to accommodate this situation but it is a real challenge when we have many residents with COVID.
