Families press for inquiry into nursing home deaths

QUESTIONS: Fatima Loughran with a photo of her mum, Sarah Abeton, who died 10 days after her Covid jab. Photo: Mark Condren

Maeve Sheehan

March 21 2021 02:30 AM

Families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes in the third wave of the pandemic are coming forward in increasing numbers to demand an inquiry into the deaths, a leading advocacy group for older people has said.

Bereaved relatives pressing for an inquiry include Fatima Loughran, whose mother tested positive for Covid-19 on the same day she received the vaccine, and Dr Judith Butler, who contracted the virus in a nursing home days after she was vaccinated. Both have questioned the speed of the rollout to vulnerable elderly people.

Figures published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre last week revealed there were 921 Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes between November 22 last year and March 13 this year.

Nearly half of those deaths occurred in January.

Support group Sage Advocacy says it has been contacted by so many families that it is calling on the Government to order a public inquiry into the scale of deaths in nursing homes - which was one of the main recommendations made by an Oireachtas special committee in October.

Sarah Lennon, executive director of Sage Advocacy, said bereaved families have come forward in significant numbers to say they "cannot begin to come to terms with that loss until they can understand what happened and if more could have been done to have prevented the huge loss of life from Covid-19 among our nursing home residents".

Taoiseach Micheál Martin suggested last month that he supports "a full evaluation or inquiry" when the country emerges from Covid-19, but warned it would not be simple.

Ms Loughran, a psychiatric nurse, believes an inquiry is necessary into outbreaks in individual nursing homes and official policy.

A question that haunts her is whether her mother could have survived had she been vaccinated sooner.

Sarah Abeton was a resident of a public nursing home, the Lusk Community Nursing Unit, in north county Dublin.

The home survived the first wave without an outbreak.

As Christmas drew near and case numbers soared, Ms Loughran believed her mother would be in the first cohort of people to be vaccinated.

In reality, what happened was "the reverse", she said.

Within days of the first shipment, vaccinations started in acute hospital settings on December 29.

She did not expect her mother to have to wait two weeks to receive her first dose. When vaccinations started at Lusk Community Nursing Unit on January 11, the virus was already seeding in the home. Her mother's test result came back positive on the same day she was vaccinated. She died 10 days later.

Ms Loughran said the nursing home staff had communicated with her and appointed a social worker for her mother's end-of-life care. The family was allowed two compassionate visits before she died.

Days after her mother's death, a cousin showed Ms Loughran a newspaper article published the week her mother died that highlighted 13 deaths of residents with Covid-19 at Lusk.

Even though the staff of the nursing home had communicated with her, she said she had "no idea" of the extent or severity of the outbreak.

She believes an inquiry should examine why residents and staff of nursing homes were not actually the first cohort of people to be vaccinated, and why some nursing homes suffered devastating Covid-19 outbreaks while others escaped.

"We need to understand to prevent this happening again," she said.

In another case, Dr Butler, who chose not to identify her mother's nursing home, said their family "cheered with relief" when their mother received her first vaccine on January 11. Their relief was short-lived, however, as on the same day someone in the nursing home tested positive for Covid-19.

"My mother tested positive shortly after and died on January 23 in the nursing home without her family," Dr Butler said.

"When my beautiful mother was 'at end of life', my family were trying to ring to get information, but in the end the nursing home asked us to wait for them to ring us as they were so busy.

"Essentially, we were waiting for the call that our beloved mother had passed. This was not the fault of the staff, who were doing their absolute best under these dreadful circumstances.

"We do need answers, however - we need to know why Covid-19 ripped through some nursing homes while others escaped, and why others were able to effectively contain it or protect against it.

"Was it because of PPE measures that some nursing homes had in place that prevented outbreaks, or was it because some homes had better infection prevention control? If so, what lessons can be learned?

"I firmly believe that an independent public inquiry into all nursing homes needs to take place.

"No one should die alone, and I hope an inquiry will identify the failings of our system, which will lead to better holistic care for all residents.

"This model of care has failed to protect our most vulnerable and it cannot be let happen again."

Relatives have called for inquiries into specific nursing homes where some of the worst outbreaks occurred, such as Dealgan nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, where 23 people died; Oaklands in Listowel, Co Kerry, which was effectively shut down; and Ballynoe nursing home in Glanmire, Cork, where 25 people died.

Ms Lennon, of Sage Advocacy, said an inquiry could take many forms, including a human rights investigation under a provision of the Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.