The Quebec coroner’s office is investigating the death of a 67-year-old woman who died in a seniors' home, and whose body wasn’t found for days.
Diane Paiement lived in the Residence Sault-Au-Recollet, a private seniors' residence in Montreal–North where her body was found April 7.
“It’s inhuman, what happened there,” said Paiement’s niece Josee Campeau.
Paiement had received a phone call from the residence asking where her aunt was, saying she hadn’t shown up in the cafeteria for several days and had also not come for her medication or appeared for a doctor’s appointment.
25 minutes later, Campeau was told her aunt was found dead on the floor of her kitchen.
Based on the last time Paiement had taken her medication, Campeau believes her aunt may have died as long as ten days earlier without anyone noticing.
“My aunt was in a state of decomposition,” said Campeau. “Ten days, it’s terrible. No one knocked on her door, no one looked for her.”
According to patients' rights attorney Jean-Pierre Menard, depending on how Paiement died and what services she paid for, this may be a case of negligence on the part of the residence.
But in a statement, the residence denies all allegations of negligence or wrongdoing. It says the home caters to semi-autonomous and autonomous seniors and Paiement was considered to be one of its autonomous residents.
She did not subscribe to the residence’s medication management service, and staff don’t keep track of each resident’s presence unless they subscribe to that service, which Paiement did not, the statement says.
A spokesperson also said the residence has no cafeteria -- Paiement had a meal card that she could use in the residence's restaurant.
It also mentions all apartments have emergency pull cords but there is no record of a call for help coming from her apartment.
Pierre Blain, a representative for the Regroupement Provincial des Comites des Usagers, which represents users in 600 publicly-funded homes across Quebec, said residences like Sault-Au-Recollet do have directives to check on their clients, even if they’re supposed to be autonomous.
“By law, they should have checked,” he said. “It’s not reasonable because in this case, the person was supposed to have pills and meals in the residence. Then, at least, somebody should have known. That is specific and these directives were not followed in this residence.”
Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said it’s clear there was a failure somewhere and called the situation sad and regrettable.
The home was supposed to have 24/7 surveillance, according to Campeau, and even if there wasn’t negligence on their part, the staff showed a lack of care.
“No one at any point thought something has happened to her, let’s check on her,” she said. “It’s not normal.”
