‘I was just a wreck’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/11/2020 (1918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man says he’s losing sleep after more than half the residents at Golden Links Lodge, including his mother, tested positive for COVID-19.

Kevin McGregor said he was initially told two residents and three staff at the facility had tested positive for the virus. As of Thursday night, 42 of the care home’s 81 residents were infected and three had died.

Provincial public health officials first announced the outbreak at Golden Links Lodge, on St. Mary’s Road, on Nov. 13.

“I went from being fairly hopeful before any of this started and then it switched really quickly to the feeling of dread and anxiety because it escalated so quickly, too,” McGregor said.

“The numbers kept going higher and higher, and my stress level was going through the roof. I had to take Friday off work because I lost a lot of sleep.”

McGregor’s mother, Joan, who has dementia, tested negative at the beginning of the care home’s outbreak, but she later started developing symptoms. McGregor said he received a call on Thursday when the staff noticed her condition had changed and her fever was back.

“They called on Thursday and said she was having problems breathing and various things. They asked if I wanted to come see her — they didn’t say because she was about to die, but it was sort of insinuated that it was a possibility,” said McGregor.

“The medics were there and did some diagnosis, and they said she’d have to be taken to the hospital right now. They took her to St. Boniface Hospital, and she stayed in emergency for a bit and now they admitted her. So, now she’s actually at St. Boniface Hospital.”

McGregor visited his mother on Thursday at Golden Links Lodge, which made him realize the COVID-19 outbreaks at care homes aren’t just harming the residents.

“The problem is not just my mom, but I’ve just been in this environment. Should I self-isolate for 14 days? When do I get to see my daughter? What if I give it to my daughter? I don’t want to take that chance, but I did follow all the directions with sanitizing and using PPE.”

When his mother was taken to the hospital, she was tested again for the virus. On Friday, McGregor received a phone call confirming his mom tested positive.

“I was just a wreck for that day specifically and I’m still not sleeping well,” he said. “I was just on pins and needles the whole time trying to focus on work. It’s sort of hard to concentrate when in the back of your mind there’s this whole tenseness of what do I do next? Is there anything I can do?”

On Sunday, McGregor was given an update from the hospital on his mom’s condition.

“I just got a call from a nurse at the hospital and she gave me an update from yesterday and said she’s resting comfortably, eating some and talking a little bit.”

“I don’t want to be too hopeful here. Nobody really knows what the progression is… for all I know she could take a serious downturn at any moment.”

McGregor said health-care workers need more support if they are to stop the spread of the virus at personal care homes. He added there should be support measures in place, like grocery delivery so care-home workers can isolate at home when they’re not working.

“I don’t think it’s fair to blame the care-home workers. They have to work there… they want to provide care but if people want to reduce the chance of the workers bringing COVID in — then we need to support the workers more,” he said.

Marcy-Lynn Larner, Golden Links Lodge’s CEO, told the Free Press on Friday that staffing shortages forced them to reach out for help. She added that they have been struggling to fill a lot of shifts.

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca