Lakeshore Hospital investigates after 92-year-old patient with dementia sent home barefoot, in hospital gown
CBC
The Lakeshore General Hospital in Montreal's West Island has launched an internal investigation after a 92-year-old woman with dementia was discharged from hospital Wednesday and sent home in a taxi, barefoot and wearing only a hospital gown.
"She was shivering and shaking and extremely confused by the whole ordeal," Nathalie Paré, the daughter of Irene Paré, told CBC in an interview Thursday.
"I just think that it's terrible," said Paré. "These are human beings. They're not animals, and you wouldn't even treat your animal that way."
Nathalie Paré said her mother was taken to hospital by ambulance Tuesday, after she called 911 because her mother was experiencing pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
Paré said the hospital called Tuesday night to say her mother was being treated for a urinary tract infection on the emergency ward and that she would be admitted to a room in the hospital Wednesday morning.
However, the next morning the hospital called Paré at work and said her mother had been discharged and was already on her way home in an adapted minivan taxi.
Paré knew that her mother didn't have house keys with her, so she left work and scrambled to get to her mother's house before the taxi arrived.
She made it, but when the minivan pulled up, Paré couldn't believe her eyes.
"To my complete and utter surprise, my mother was sitting there in the front seat with no clothes on. She had a hospital gown with a little blanket, no shoes on her feet, no socks. She was barefoot and shivering," Paré said.
According to Environment Canada, the temperature at nearby Trudeau airport Wednesday morning was between –23 C and –18 C, and with the windchill felt as cold as –29.
Paré said the clothes that her mother had been sent to hospital in were in a bag in the taxi.
"Slippers, sweater, her jeans and everything was there. They could have dressed her up," she said.
"I don't understand how a hospital can let a woman go home with no clothes on, at 92, with dementia."
She said she intends to file a formal complaint with the hospital's ombudsman.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.