Family says small option home abandoned man with Down syndrome at hospital

The sister of a Cape Breton man with Down syndrome says her brother's small option home has abandoned him at a hospital.

For 20 years, Brent Beaton has lived at Koster Huis, a home in Mabou, N.S., operated by the County of Inverness Municipal Housing Corporation, a non-profit licensed and funded by the province.

Beaton, 60, and three other people with disabilities lived at the home, which had two staff members on site most of the time to look after them.

But on Dec. 22, Laureen Murphy said she received an email from Koster Huis stating that her brother was being taken to hospital in Inverness by ambulance because his temperature was fluctuating, his skin was discoloured and his urine was foul-smelling.

Not long after his arrival, hospital staff determined he could go home but Koster Huis refused to take him back, she said.

“I phoned the hospital in the morning and they said, ‘Well, there was nothing alarming, he's going to be discharged.’ But then I found out [the administration] wasn't taking him home,” said Murphy.

“I felt he was abandoned at the hospital completely.”

Her brother, she said, enjoys listening and dancing to fiddle music on his CD player, particularly tunes by his cousin, musician Howie MacDonald. Although he’s now non-verbal, he also loves a good joke, she said.

“He has a keen sense of humour that only certain people get.”

Murphy calls her brother’s treatment “cruel” and “unkind.” She said she tried to find out why the home wouldn’t take him back even though there was no medical reason for him to remain at the hospital.

She called his care co-ordinator, a professional with the Department of Opportunities and Social Development that handles his case file. Murphy said she was told the home cited safety concerns but she was provided few details. 

She said her brother had previously been sent to the ER three times since October but doctors on each occasion found no medical reason to keep him in hospital. Staff at Koster Huis noted he had trouble swallowing, was unsteady on his feet and was dealing with some incontinence issues, she said.

“The words that the administrator used to me was that the staff were mentally and physically exhausted from looking after Brent,” said Murphy.

She said she had her brother's care co-ordinator complete an assessment of his needs and though it was determined Beaton required more personal care, he still met the criteria to stay in a small option home.