‘Deserted’: Testimony of a head nurse’s visit at CHSLD Herron during first wave

“It was deserted,” are the words coming from another testimony highlighting the out-of-control situation at CHSLD Herron in Dorval on Montreal’s West Island, where 47 seniors died in the spring of 2020.

In a new recording made public Thursday, which was entered into evidence at the coroner’s inquest into the deaths in long-term care homes during the first wave of the pandemic, head nurse of Montreal’s West Island health authority, Sophie Caron, is heard detailing the lack of care and staff.

“It took us six or seven minutes to find someone, and this person who was in charge that night, she was completely overwhelmed,” Caron said in French, in an over an hour long testimony to Montreal police on June 10, 2020.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO:

Caron visited the residence on April 7, 2020, just over a week after the regional health authority intervened at the privately run seniors home and its leadership told the government the situation there was under control. 

She says, on that day, there were five health workers for 154 residents.

Police asked her, “Did you see people from the CIUSSS on the premises?”

“No,” she responded.

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CityNews first brought you the story of the horrors taking place within the walls of Herron on April 8, 2020, when volunteer nurse at the home, Loredana Mule, sounded the alarm.

When I entered the rooms, I discovered their lunch trays were not even touched, their mattresses were full of urine,” Mule said, recounting what she witnessed on March 27, 2020. “I believe they were sitting in urine and feces for about a day or so.”

Nurse Caron’s mother was among the residents at Herron during that time. 

“She called me in tears saying she’s hurting, she didn’t have her medication and she said, ‘I didn’t eat, they didn’t bring us anything,’” Caron said in her testimony to police.

Peter Wheeland’s mother Connie was also at Herron.

“No one brought her breakfast,” he said. “She was left lying in her or soiled diapers all morning. She finally got lunch when the neighbor across the hall from her pushed her lunch cart into the room and said ‘here Connie.’”

#WATCH: “There’s no one, not a single person who took any responsibility for what went on,” says Peter Wheeland, whose mother Connie was at CHSLD Herron two years ago when residents were neglected and left in their excrement due to a lack of staff.

READ: https://t.co/Fm42OTl5xt pic.twitter.com/aA1pdAI8Rf

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) April 7, 2022

On Wednesday, another recording made public revealed one of Herron’s managers even turned to a government-run health line for help because no one answered her at the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

“Even when the CIUSSS leadership took over, we hear after that there were quite a number of deaths attributable to dehydration,” said patient rights advocate, Seeta Ramdass. “So things did not even improve after the so-called experts took over.”

Quebec Ministers insist they only found out of the conditions at Herron after an article was published. The government says they are now waiting for the coroner’s report conclusions to make a comment.

“What does it say about a government that fails its most vulnerable members of society?” asks Ramdass.

“Come out, all parties, and publicly acknowledge and apologize to the families for what happened and then do your public investigation and find out what were the mistakes that were made and when you [find] out what those mistakes were, put in the measures to correct them,” she added.

#WATCH: “What does it say about a government that fails its most vulnerable members of society?” asks patient rights advocate, Seeta Ramdass. She says she wants Herron victims’ families to get answers through a public inquiry of what went wrong.

READ: https://t.co/2GuGU2kPfn pic.twitter.com/KkxCdElVfz

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) April 7, 2022

For Wheeland, whose mother Connie died later in 2020 due to non-COVID reasons, justice will come when there’s accountability for what happened at Herron.

“W saw that in the coroner’s inquest, time after time after time, there were all kinds of people who admitted that things were going wrong and there’s no one, not a single person, who took any responsibility for what went on,” Wheeland said. “They had no idea how to handle the pandemic, but there were serious mistakes made at the beginning that caused a lot of premature deaths.”