Negligence led to woman’s death, lawsuit against care home claims

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This article was published 21/03/2024 (534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The family of a woman with dementia, who died after she was strangled while tangled in a torn curtain in an unlocked room at a downtown Winnipeg care home, has filed a lawsuit against its operators for negligence.

The civil claim was filed by Martin Pollock of Winnipeg law firm Pollock & Company in Court of King’s Bench last week on behalf of the family of 63-year-old Irene Fontaine.

The family is seeking $110,000 in damages under the Fatal Accidents Act and special damages, including funeral expenses, plus court costs and interest, in her January 2023 death.

The operators of Beacon Hill Lodge on Fort Street — Revera Inc., which managed the home at the time, Axium Extendicare LTC II LP, Extendicare LTC II GP and Axium Extendicare — are named as defendants.

None have filed statements of defence.

The court documents allege the operators knew that Fontaine needed supervision as she had a tendency to wander, but despite that, she was left alone for a time on Jan. 11, 2023. An obituary indicates Fontaine was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 60.

Between about 11:50 and 11:58 a.m., Fontaine went wandering on her floor in the long-term care home unsupervised and ended up in an unused room, say the court papers.

“While alone in the room, Irene’s head and neck got trapped in a hole of a fabric bed curtain,” reads the claim. “As a result, Irene struggled, could not extract herself and was asphyxiated.”

A health-care aide found her and called for paramedics, who arrived at about 12:08 p.m. She was rushed to St. Boniface Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The court documents allege the care home’s employees caused or contributed to Fontaine’s death through negligence, including by failing to inform themselves of her medical condition, her need of supervision and allowing her to wander.

Further, the claim alleges, the employees did not inspect the room or remove the damaged curtain.

The family’s lawsuit says the workers failed to follow the operators’ policies for caring for people with dementia.

The court documents also claim the operators contributed to Fontaine’s death by failing to adequately train employees in caring for residents with dementia, continuing to educate them to use critical thinking on behalf of residents, failing to conduct inspections of staff to ensure Fontaine was being given reasonable care and that appropriate standards were met.

The lawsuit claims the operators breached their duty of care to Fontaine by failing to secure the room in which she died, failing to remove the curtain or inspect the room, by equipping the room with the curtain in the first place and by failing to implement a system to ensure the home and rooms were free of hazards.

A spokesperson for Extendicare, which took over the downtown Winnipeg care home from Revera along with many other facilities as Revera moved out of the business of managing retirement homes in Canada, deferred questions to Revera.

Revera did not return a request for comment Wednesday.

In 2022, Revera entered an agreement for Extendicare to take over management of most of its long-term care homes in Manitoba. Extendicare’s management of Beacon Hill Lodge took effect Aug. 1, 2023.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Revera owned and operated 11 long-term care and retirement homes in Winnipeg and one in Brandon.

Among Revera’s long-term care properties were Maples and Parkview Place personal-care homes, where residents of experienced disproportionately deadly consequences when COVID spread. An outbreak at Maples that was declared Oct. 20, 2020, infected 231 residents and staff, killing 56.

Four Manitoba retirement homes that had been managed by Revera were transferred to Quebec-based real estate management firm Cogir, also in 2023.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca