Since March 11th when she last saw her mother in person, Jacqueline Mitchell didn’t want to burden the Eatonville Care Centre, the Etobicoke facility where her 94-year-old mother stays.
She’d call every couple of days, told her mother’s temperature, that she was okay and that she would be notified if anything changed.
But things did start to change early this month, when she inquired about how just one person in a long-term care home testing positive would be considered an outbreak.
She called and was told that at least one person on each floor had tested positive.
“Which seemed ominous,” she said. “I’m not getting the numbers, but I’m getting, sort of, something like somebody trying to tell me something without really telling me.”
Because of privacy, she says she wouldn’t be told if her mother’s roommate was tested, or get any updates about other residents.
Then everything changed Sunday night, in a robocall from executive director Evelyn MacDonald that 14 people had died.
“I froze,” she said. “And I’m telling you, I emailed Doug Ford that same night asking if it was a hoax, because I could not believe that 14 people could be dead in an institution and it was the first time we were hearing it.”
That tally increased to 25 Monday, with 49 other confirmed cases and six test results pending.
MacDonald issued a statement saying it anticipated an increase in positive cases over the coming weeks, as there are “symptomatic, but not-yet confirmed COVID-19 resident at this time.
“I want to assure the community that we have taken the same precautions with these residents, as with COVID-19 confirmed residents,” she said.
But for Mitchell, there’s no way of knowing if one of those residents is her mother’s roommate because of those privacy reasons.
She said while she’s sensitive to privacy, that doesn’t mean the communication pipeline should be what it is, saying when called the last two days, she’s been told by staff that MacDonald would be the only one who could answer questions.
She says she hasn’t been able to reach management and doubts how effective physical distancing can be because of the size of her mother’s room and the condition of the building.
And then there’s conflating information about hospitalization.
Earlier this month when Health Minister Christine Elliott said residents in long-term care homes could be transferred to a hospital, Mitchell called about that too and was told that transfers would not happen.
“I feel as though my mother and those residents have been given a death sentence,” she said, when reflecting on the last two weeks, saying while her mother has Alzheimer's, she does not have any other underlying health issues.
Mitchell isn’t the first to raise questions about Eatonville in recent days.
One man told CTV NEWS that despite his father having a fever two weeks ago, he wasn’t tested then and after he died on Saturday, only learned of a positive result on Monday through the funeral home he was sent to.
“There’s no call at this point, there’s nothing,” Terence Van Dyke said. “He’s just ‘another one’ and I just have a strong issue with that.”
Another woman told CP24 that she was also shocked to learn about the deaths on Sunday.
“The numbers are very, very skewed,” Jane Bayly said, whose parents are at the facility. “Now miraculously, Eatonville has finally received a whole bunch of tests.”
“I know for a fact that maybe only a couple of residents a week, if they had symptoms, were being tested.”
MacDonald did attribute the jump in deaths to changing provincial criteria.
“Public Health has confirmed that nine residents who had previously passed away due to unknown causes, have now been attributed to COVID-19. This has been reflected in our reported total number of cases, but does not represent new deaths attributed to the virus,” she said.
Mitchell said she understands this is a challenging time for front-line workers and compliments the staff for trying to accommodate as much as they can, saying on one phone call, a worker went up for a quick temperature check and returned with the result.
She said families have also been informed that all residents will now be tested, but they’ll only get a call if there’s a positive result.
She added regardless of the change in testing criteria, the manner in which she learned of the deaths can’t be the status quo, especially during a pandemic and transparency has to improve going forward.
“I can deal with the truth, tell me the facts, tell me your limitations, I can prepare myself for any eventuality when I am dealing with facts,” she said.
NEWSTALK1010 has reached out to the facility.