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As the retirement homes in Quebec were being devastated by Covid-19, a surgeon, an ophthalmologist, and a gastroenterologist were among many medical professionals who volunteered to help staff overburdened with caring and feeding their vulnerable residents.
The experience left them very shocked.
Dr. Yves Bendavid, a 49-year-old surgeon, responded to an urgent plea from the province’s prime minister, Francois Legault, at a time when the rapidly spreading virus was leaving nursing homes desperately short of nursing staff .
Deployed to the long-term care facility at the Biermans Residence in Montreal on a night shift, Bendavid said the scene awaiting him there was shocking: severe staff shortages, inadequate protective materials, even infected patients who do not wear masks.
“The patients were dehydrated, they probably hadn’t had water all day,” he said. “I thought I would be distributing a lot of medications and managing medical and nursing care. Instead, my biggest contribution was giving them glasses of water.
“They had hollow eyes, a dry mouth, rough tongues and chapped lips,” he recalled. “We were in a long-term care facility in Montreal, and people were thirsty due to a lack of staff.”
In one day, on April 19, Bendavid prepared a body for a funeral home, served meals, changed patients’ diapers, and distributed medications.
“I really didn’t expect to distribute medications,” he said, adding that it was the first time for him. “It really is a task generally reserved for nurses, for safety reasons.” He said he was concerned that he might make a mistake in the dosage.
Dr. Etienne is a gastroenterologist by training, but in the nursing home he had to perform several tasks due to severe shortages.one thousand uses
Dr. Etienne Desilets is a gastroenterologist by training. But since April 19, he has worked 12 hours a day, caring for his usual patients first, then volunteering as a nursing assistant in a retirement home, wearing a surgical mask, a protective bandana, and a light blue lab coat.
“When the crisis started, what surprised me the most was hearing about places where they didn’t have staff to feed people,” he said. He was also surprised to learn of care facilities abandoned by large numbers of staff, either because they had become infected or feared they might be.
“That pushed me to get involved, for sure,” said Desilets, who has been helping out at Chartwell’s retirement home in Longueuil, a city south of Montreal.
In the province of Quebec, which only accounts for more than half of all coronavirus deaths in Canada, more than eight in 10 deaths have occurred in nursing homes. The hardest hit of all has been the Montreal area.
“As a young doctor, I would rather go to the front myself,” Desilets said. “And if I am unfortunate enough to get the virus, I know the chances of serious consequences are slim.”
At Chartwell, this 35-year-old family man has become an expert in all trades: he helps provide care, brings meals to residents (and sometimes feeds them), and distributes medications … along with words of comfort.
He said he feels “supported” there and believes he is working in “safe conditions.”
Really whatever …
In contrast, Dr. Ralph Kyrillos, a 31-year-old ophthalmologist who is normally in a hospital, said he was surprised by the management of the pandemic at Quebec’s Jeffery Hale long-term care facility, where he began offering himself as volunteer on April 20.
“On the site, the rules, the steps taken to prevent an outbreak, it really is whatever it is,” he said, describing how some patients were allowed to go out and walk freely.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole floor ended up being positive” for Covid-19, Kyrillos said.
After spending time at home, he returned to his hospital center, where precautions were rigidly applied and widely respected.
But until he received a negative test for Covid-19 himself, the doctor said he was often concerned that he might have been exposed and passed the virus on to his ophthalmology patients.
Now she has had to let go of those fears. Kyrillos has been called to return to the Hale Center later this month. – AFP
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