‘She deserved a better end to her life’: flu death investigated after care home failed to vaccinate nonagenarian By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 16, 2023 Last Modified: 9:42 AM CDT Wednesday, May. 17, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 16/05/2023 (887 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The death of a 90-year-old woman at a Winnipeg personal care home has been deemed a critical incident, after the facility failed to vaccinate her against the flu.

The family of Jenny Sankow are now awaiting the results and recommendations of a completed Winnipeg Regional Health Authority investigation into the December 2022 death — blamed, in part, by Fred Douglas Lodge officials, “on a new process and protocols for ordering the flu vaccine.”

Meantime, they continue to push for change.

“My mother had a lot to live for, she was a fighter,” Jennie Malloy said Monday. “She would have turned 91 on April 30. She would have had that birthday if not for the flu.

“She deserved a better end to her life.”

Sankow, and her husband of 70 years Albert, moved to the Fred Douglas Lodge almost five years ago.

Sankow was taken to Grace Hospital on Dec. 11, while having trouble breathing. It was determined Sankow had contracted Influenza A.

On Dec. 18, Sankow was stable enough to be transferred back to Fred Douglas Lodge. Two days later, she was rushed back to hospital.

Sankow died from Influenza A on Dec. 20.

Malloy said Sankow and her husband had received the seasonal flu shot each year, with care home staff contacting her for permission before administering it.

In fall 2022, Fred Douglas Lodge called again and she gave permission for the flu shots, Malloy said.

However, in December, when Sankow was fighting for her life in hospital, family members were told by a care home worker the woman didn’t get her flu shot.

“We discovered the nursing home she was in had not vaccinated three-quarters of the residents,” said Sankow’s other daughter, Catherine Keating.

“We discovered the nursing home she was in had not vaccinated three-quarters of the residents.”–Jennie Malloy

“It was never communicated to us that, due to a new ordering system from the province and the oversight by the nursing home to either not follow up when they didn’t receive their allotted vaccines, assuming they were even ordered, or communicating to us that we should look to our own resources to make sure our parents were immunized, our mother unfortunately contracted the flu.”

The daughters then contacted the WRHA.

On Tuesday, WRHA spokeswoman Bobbi-Jo Stanley said the authority can’t speak about individual cases, but confirmed a critical incident review took place at Fred Douglas Lodge.

“Recommendations from a review are being implemented,” Stanley said. “They include site changes to update processes for seasonal immunization programs in collaboration with the WRHA Continuing Care program, and site changes to display contact information for WRHA client relations in areas accessible to residents and families.

“(The) WRHA did not hear of any concerns regarding a delay in flu vaccines brought forward by families of residents in other PCHs.”

According to the province, this year’s flu season has hospitalized 730 Manitobans and killed 60, with some 75 per cent of fatalities being age 65 and over.

The province said about 60 per cent of Manitobans over age 65 have received a flu shot this season. In total, 27.1 per cent of Manitobans rolled up their sleeves.

Roslyn Garofalo, chief executive officer of Fred Douglas Society, said the lodge had a COVID-19 outbreak in September, and management’s focus at the time was to vaccinate residents to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading further.

“That, coupled with a new process and protocols for ordering the flu vaccine, caused delays in receiving our vaccine orders and administration to residents,” Garofalo said. “Management is developing processes in consultation with the WRHA to prevent this from occurring again.”

A spokesperson for Manitoba Health said the department produced a new order and delivery system for the 2022-23 flu season in July, “in order to make influenza vaccine available to the public at more locations earlier in the season.”

“All long-term care homes were notified,” the spokesperson said. “Manitoba Health posts communications sent to health-care providers on the seasonal influenza website.”

“Nothing is bringing mom back. It’s a cautionary tale of one family’s struggle to get accountability. We realize no one did this deliberately, but mistakes were made.”–Catherine Keating

On the website, the province said the “new enhanced order and delivery model” was similar to the system used by physicians and pharmacists, and would both “increase access to influenza vaccine to all health-care providers earlier and also reduce wastage by allowing for increased order frequency throughout the season.”

The province said providers would now be sent a link to an online survey where they could order enough flu vaccines for a week or two.

In bold letters, the province said providers would have to register for the program, even if they had distributed vaccine shots before, and warned if they didn’t keep track of the doses ordered and administered it “may result in providers/facilities receiving fewer doses than ordered.”

Sue Vovchuk, executive director of the Long Term & Continuing Care Association of Manitoba, confirmed there had been problems at care homes with the new ordering system.

“The turnaround time for the survey responses was quite short — sometimes less than two days,” Vovchuk said. “And, with the rollout of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccination also in September, it was challenging for some PCHs (personal care homes) to submit their orders in time and receiving their influenza vaccine was delayed.”

Meantime, Sankow’s daughters said they will continue to push to make sure no other family has to go through what they did.

“Nothing is bringing mom back,” Keating said. “It’s a cautionary tale of one family’s struggle to get accountability. We realize no one did this deliberately, but mistakes were made.

“We just don’t want her to be another statistic.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.