[ad_1]
Some of the families of those who died at the Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk are calling for a full investigation into a Covid-19 outbreak at the center.
Dealgan House has been one of the most affected nursing homes in the country with 23 residents dying since early April, many believed to have died from Covid-19.
Lily McArdle, 89, passed away on April 7 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. She had been a resident in the nursing home for 18 months.
Her daughter Loretto Gaughran said that once she contracted Covid-19, she quickly deteriorated.
“She was hospitalized on Saturday and we received a phone call on Sunday morning to say that she was very ill and when I got to the hospital I went to talk to the doctor and he was not sure at the time if it was Covid, but he was pretty sure that it was “.
Lilly McArdle passed away on April 7 at our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, with a nurse by her side.
When Loretto Gaughran came to terms with the death of his mother, he said he then had to deal with the magnitude of the outbreak in the nursing home.
“I had come to the stage where I was afraid to watch rip.ie. I knew so many people in the house and every day it was not unusual to see three and four people in it. I continued in the morning and I see that there is another woman that I know, a woman across the hall from mom. The woman next door also died, “he said.
Loretto Gaughran is critical of communication from the nursing home.
“The only call I got from the nursing home was to ask if they could get their belongings out of their room. Not to feel sorry for me or anything like that. I also find it rather surprising that a question from Dáil has come up.” to really address some of the queries that have been raised. “
On April 17, the RCSI hospital group took over the operational management of the nursing home. HIQA has said it will carry out an inspection.
“They need to speak to management and they must speak to the residents who are there. They also need to speak to the families of those who are no longer with us. We are their voice but we also have an experience and a story to tell our experiences of how it was handled. Covid. It won’t bring Mom back, but the lessons must be learned, “Gaughran said.
Florrie Cleary, 95, was another Dealgan House resident. He passed away on April 24.
Her daughter Ann said she last visited her mother on March 8 because she was concerned about bringing the virus home.
“I last saw her on March 8. I said goodbye that day knowing that something might happen and I might never see her again, but I felt it was the best thing I could do for her because on one level I can ‘I don’t control the virus, but there were so many things you could do to minimize the risk, “he said.
While Florrie Cleary tested negative for the virus in the days leading up to her death, her daughter Ann says she has more questions than answers.
“Someone doesn’t need to find out what happened. I think we should find out what happened fairly quickly. I know we will be discovering things about this virus for years, but surely we should start making some efforts to gather evidence now,” said Ms. Cleary.
For now, these families are trying to cry, but they say their search for answers will continue.
“They were people, they had families, they lived lives. They may not have been people who wrote books or who were powerful or who had a lot of money or anything else, but they deserved respect. I just feel like they’ve been left voiceless by this,” he said. Ann Cleary.
In a statement to RTÉ News, Dealgan House said heartbroken families, public officials and the people of Dundalk have the right to ask questions and wait for answers about what happened, how the virus spread and whether it could have been prevented or mitigated.
He said that now that management and staff have returned to near full capacity, he is also looking to determine where the virus came from in the first place.
The statement says that during the month of March, it did its best to keep the virus out, in terms of banning visitors, strengthening infection control, further educating staff on standard infection control measures using specific advice. of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET)
NPHET’s guide at the time was that temperature was the key symptom along with a dry cough or shortness of breath.
“Few of our positive residents showed these symptoms, and many were only found to be positive for Covid after they passed away despite being asymptomatic,” the statement said.
The nursing home said it welcomed the HIQA inspection announced last Friday and will cooperate fully with it and make all its data and records available to inspectors as needed.
The statement also said that Dealgan House apologized to resident families for the lack of communication with individual families at the height of the outbreak when the absence of key staff, limitations on getting around the nursing home and the inability of nurses To answer calls when engaged in caregiving tasks while wearing full PPE, responses to individual calls were very difficult.
The nursing home said it expects the families of the residents to have noticed a marked improvement in the past few weeks as key staff have returned to work.
[ad_2]