Home care begins for Winnipeg woman after death By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023 Last Modified: 8:51 AM CST Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 21/02/2023 (983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman dying of pancreatic cancer while her husband fought to obtain home care for her finally got service Tuesday — days after her death.

Katherine Ellis, 62, died Saturday night.

On Feb. 17, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority officials had visited the couple to say the home care Ellis was supposed to receive after being released from hospital five weeks ago would start after the long weekend, Eric De Schepper said.

De Schepper said he called the WRHA on Sunday, to report Ellis had died and the planned care was no longer needed, but a worker still showed up at 10 a.m.

“I’ve been asking for so long, and now they show up when I don’t need it anymore?” he said Tuesday. “I said, ‘What are you doing here? Go help someone else — didn’t they tell you?’ He said, ‘No one called me.’”

To make matters worse, and to cause even more grief, De Schepper said a truck with home care supplies arrived later in the day.

De Schepper said a hospital bed, with a special air mattress that made Ellis more comfortable, was only delivered Feb. 17 — she was able to use it for a single night.

“Kathy should have received home care from the first week she got out of hospital,” he said, noting the service would have helped with bathing, changing bed sheets, and to just be with her to allow for breaks.

“She would have had quality of life. This family has been traumatized by this event.”

Ellis was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in November. She was hospitalized in December, when she went into diabetic shock.

She decided to receive palliative care at home, but the couple didn’t realize they wouldn’t get service right away.

After weeks of calls that seemed to get him nowhere, and providing round-the-clock care himself, De Schepper went to the media last week. Almost immediately, the process for home care services began, he said.

In a statement last week, the WRHA said a shortage of staff continues to hamper home care services and it is continuing to recruit more workers.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman said “the WRHA would like to offer its deepest condolences to the family on the loss of their loved one.”

“When changes occur, clients and families are encouraged to reach out to their home care case co-ordinator, and the after-hours service on evenings and weekends,” she said.

“We try to prioritize any immediate requests, but there may be times, especially on long weekends, when those requests take time to implement.”

NDP Leader Wab Kinew offered his condolences to the family Tuesday.

“It has been a heart-wrenching story to follow,” Kinew said. “If you were to call this a cold, unfeeling bureaucracy, I don’t think you’d find anyone who would disagree… To see their grieving process is further complicated by these insensitive intrusions, just adds to the disappointment we all have.

“We need to support people. Home care, dignified health care, to people when they really need it.”

“If you were to call this a cold, unfeeling bureaucracy, I don’t think you’d find anyone who would disagree.”–Wab Kinew

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, who visited the couple Feb. 17, also chastised the local health authority.

“The WRHA only responded to him when he reached out to media, and has now only sent help when it is too late.” Lamont said. “It’s appalling. Mr. De Schepper deserves an apology, not another excuse.

“The reality of our health-care system is that the people providing comfort care don’t have the resources to do it anymore. For our health-care system to work, we have to care for the people providing care, too.”

Thomas Linner, provincial director of the Manitoba Health Coalition advocacy organization, said the experience of Ellis and De Schepper is one of many negatives he has heard recently about home care.

“That it is the tragic norm, and becoming more common, should shock our collective conscience.”–Thomas Linner

“That this would happen once should elicit a full outside investigation into what went wrong,” Linner said. “That it is the tragic norm, and becoming more common, should shock our collective conscience.

“This is people’s lives and dignity in their final days with loved ones. We all deserve so much more.”

De Schepper said he is thankful for the people who did help the couple, and he will not forget his promise to Ellis that he will keep fighting for others.

“I pledge that I will keep advocating for a better health-care (and) home care system for everyone in Manitoba,” he said. “These people need a voice, and it looks like I will be that voice.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca