With the onset of COVID-19, hospitals throughout BC have instituted a new policy. Patients cannot have visitors, except in rare circumstances. However, the new provincial health policy also supposedly allows for essential visitors — such as vital caregivers for patients with severe disabilities.
Prior to this new policy, patients with severe disabilities were clear: They could have a caregiver or a family member stay with them during their hospitalization. Even in those days, staffing levels in acute care at the best of times did not allow for the level of care a person with a severe disability required.
But the new COVID protocol along with confusion surrounding it is creating very significant problems — even tragedies, like the one I’ll outline here — when it’s not interpreted properly.
On April 15, 40-year-old Ariis Knight was admitted to Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock. Her symptoms were congestion, fever and vomiting. She did not have COVID-19. Still, medical staff made the decision that family members or caregivers could not visit or assist her due to the pandemic protocol. (For details, see this Global News report, which I was happy to be part of in support of Ariis’s case, and others facing similar circumstances.)
In addition to the critical condition that brought her to the hospital, Ariis had a severe form of cerebral palsy, which caused her to be unable to speak. But over the years, her family and caregivers had learned how to communicate with her by interpreting her eye movements and facial expressions.
Tragically, Ariis passed away a few days after being admitted. We’ll never know if she would have survived had she been able to adequately communicate with hospital staff via her caregivers and family members. Her family is now calling for an investigation.
I am on the executive team of a not-for-profit organisation known as ACE, which how I got involved with the Global TV report. We lobby the provincial government on behalf of people who have various disabilities to ensure they have adequate care. We also raise the alarm when unusual situations arise in which care levels might be compromised.
A number of weeks ago, ACE contacted senior members at the Ministry of Health. We alerted them to the risk people with severe disabilities would face if they were hospitalized and prevented from relying on the assistance of caregivers or family members because of the new, more restrictive COVID policy.
It seems our warning fell on deaf ears, or never got passed along. Whether it was a case of confusion or political inaction, there obviously was a breakdown — one that may have cost this woman her life, and one we disability advocates foresaw.
All of us at ACE and in the disability community, in general, again urge the Ministry of Health, in particular provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, to take action: Before we see another death, clarify the existing policy and clearly direct all hospitals to allow patients with severe disabilities to have critical caregivers or family members assist them during their stay, despite the current protocol. Don’t defer decisions like this to clinicians.
As this very unfortunate event proves, it can be a matter of life and death — a death not caused by COVID-19.
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