Despite the family’s polite but desperate pleas, Mr. Brodeur died six weeks later and his relatives believe that it was in large part because they couldn’t be there to make sure he was properly hydrated, a coroner’s inquest heard this week.
“What happened in LTC homes is a national shame. ... This should be a serious wake-up call,” Mr. Brodeur’s wife, Micheline Guimond, wrote in a September, 2020, letter to chief coroner Pascale Descary that was filed as an exhibit. Ms. Guimond immediately e-mailed the regional health authority, seeking permission to keep acting as a caregiver. She recalled the January episode when “unfortunately, the employees, perhaps because they ran out of time, didn’t give him the necessary care.”
“Sometimes we were just two [employees] trying to feed 16 people, it’s not easy,” said the orderly, whose name is under a publication ban. “… When the families were there I was very happy, it was a relief because I thought to myself, okay, at least these ones will be taken care of.”