Flowers are placed outside Résidence Herron, a seniors' long-term care facility, following a number of deaths since the COVID-19 outbreak, in Montreal.CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/Reuters
Bureaucratic delays hampered the efforts by the local Montreal health authority to take charge of the troubled Herron nursing home after it was deserted by its staff during the early days of the pandemic, according to documents and testimonies made public Tuesday.
The new information was presented at coroner Géhane Kamel’s inquest into the death toll in Quebec nursing homes during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inquest is looking this month at 47 deaths at Résidence Herron, a long-term care home in Montreal’s West Island.
The ghastly conditions at Herron, where employees left their posts and dying residents were found lying in their wastes, first brought public attention to the catastrophic impact of the pandemic on elder care homes.
The local health authority, known by the initials CIUSSS ODIM, became aware of the crisis on March 29. However, it took 12 days before it could take full control on April 10, because of delays between the CIUSSS, the provincial Health Department and Montreal’s regional director of public health.
It was eventually Montreal public-health director Mylène Drouin who issued a letter giving the CIUSSS the powers to manage Herron.
The chief executive officer of the CIUSSS, Lynne McVey, testified that she didn’t think to contact Dr. Drouin directly because, “It wasn’t a case of an out-of-control outbreak but the staffing and the basic needs of the residents weren’t adequate.”
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In a report filed in exhibit, the health authority underlined that its ability to take the reins at Herron was limited because, “despite daily reminders to the [Health Department], CIUSSS ODIM hasn’t received the letter that would make it legal to intervene in other ways than in a support mode.”
According to a chart filed in exhibit, 24 residents died between March 31 and April 10, the period when the CIUSSS was trying to take control.
Ms. McVey said the problems started when a Herron resident infected with COVID-19 died on March 27. This triggered an exodus from Herron personnel fearing the new disease.
The evening of March 29, after hearing from Herron managers that the home was understaffed, CIUSSS sent a team that found only three employees for 139 enfeebled people. The building stank of urine, residents were severely dehydrated and their diapers hadn’t been changed for days.
That night, Ms. McVey got in touch with the deputy health minister, Yvan Gendron, and assistant deputy minister Natalie Rosebush. She got their approval to take over Herron.
“Can we get that in writing tomorrow?” Ms. McVey asked in a series of text messages filed in exhibit.
“Yes no problem. Thanks again for being proactive,” Ms. Rosebush replied.
In the following days, Ms. McVey testified, Herron owner Samantha Chowieri wasn’t co-operating so the CIUSSS couldn’t get details about staffing schedules or residents’ files. They had no keys to the building or to the medication cabinet.
Ms. McVey also testified that Ms. Chowieri urged her employees not to come in and threatened that she wouldn’t pay agency workers who had been hired to fill-in.
Ms. Chowieri is to testify this month. But in a letter sent at the time to then-health minister Danielle McCann, she blamed the CIUSSS for being unhelpful and careless in its intervention.
By April 2, Ms. McVey texted to Ms. Rosebush: “Do you think I will receive a letter from [the ministry] to take over the Herron residence before the weekend?”
Ms. McVey added that the owner was not co-operating. “Something in writing would help me manage the situation for the upcoming weekend.”
Later that day, Ms. Rosebush e-mailed a high-ranking public-health official in the department, Richard Massé. She told him that the department’s lawyers had determined that Ms. McVey didn’t need a formal letter but instead Dr. Drouin could invoke her emergency power to order the necessary measures if there was a threat to the health of the population.
The next evening, April 3, Dr. Massé's office sent an e-mail to Dr. Drouin, asking her to use those powers, as outlined in Section 106 of the Quebec Public Health Act.
The e-mail to Dr. Drouin said that there was “a crisis currently unfolding in that facility” but gave no specific details.
Testifying Tuesday, Dr. Drouin said there was nothing in the e-mail that signalled to her that there was an emergency. She asked instead for her team to investigate the following day. “No one called me personally to tell me, ‘Go, go,’” she said.
Nothing had happened by April 7 afternoon so Ms. McVey sent an e-mail to Ms. Rosebush, saying she might resort to calling the police because the owner was still unhelpful. “Considering the lack of response from [Montreal public health] we don’t have more leverage,” she wrote.
Dr. Drouin issued the order later that day and the CIUSSS gained full control on April 10, Ms. McVey testified.
She said that at the time they thought 13 residents had succumbed at Herron. When they reviewed the records, they realized that there might have been 31 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
She decided to call the police to investigate. The possibility of criminal charges forced the inquest to postpone by seven months the hearings into Herron. Last month, however, the Quebec prosecutors’ office announced that they would not file charges.
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