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21 aged care home staff were off when Michelle's mum died. She had to care for her
Michelle Hassett arrived at her mother's aged care home in January to find her unconscious and almost out of oxygen while battling COVID-19. She says there were few staff members around to help.
Published 7 March 2022 7:00am
By Evan Young
Source: SBS News
Image: Michelle Hassett with her mother Rosemarie and daughter Sarah during Christmas 2021. (SBS News)
When Michelle Hassett arrived to see her mother on the afternoon of 21 January, she didn’t realise the 90-year-old was in the final hours of her life.
Six days earlier, Rosemarie Hassett had tested positive for COVID-19 at her aged care home in Adelaide. Other residents and staff also tested positive and the home was placed into lockdown.
With a number of regular staff off sick or furloughed, emergency replacements arrived from private agencies to help fill out the facility's workforce.
On the Wednesday following Rosemarie's positive test, Michelle says she was told the home thought her mother's health was improving.
“Her oxygen stats were pretty stable,” Michelle says.
But her concern heightened again the next day.
Rosemarie Hassett earlier this year. Credit: Supplied/Michelle Hassett
Michelle, who is an aged care nurse and lives in Melbourne, decided to drive the 700 kilometres to the home to see things for herself.
“Every 15 minutes on the drive, I was checking in on the iPad to see how she was and she kept slumping in her chair. I rang the home and asked if someone could please go and reposition her.”
Every 15 minutes, I was checking in on the iPad to see how she was.
Michelle says she received word from the home's manager that directions had been given to reposition Rosemarie.
“In the meantime, the private agency staff - these were not regular staff of the home - were coming in bringing her meals and taking them out again, and not even bothering to actually look and see how she was,” Michelle claims, based on what she could see on the iPad.
Rosemarie Hassett in October 2021. Credit: Supplied/Michelle Hassett
When they arrived at around 4pm on the Friday, Michelle says Rosemarie was unconscious in her chair and her oxygen cylinder was empty on the floor.
Rosemarie's bloodstream had just six per oxygen in it, she says. A normal level is around 95 per cent.
“I immediately went to get some oxygen ... and nobody [who was nearby] knew where to get the oxygen from. Eventually, the receptionist organised it for me.
“A hospital transfer was not in Mum's wishes, so we tried to revive her as much as we possibly could to transfer her back to bed and make her comfortable.”
“We transferred her from the chair back to her bed with a mechanical lifter, which the carers [who were nearby] had no idea how to operate. We kept the oxygen on for about an hour and a half but she was not stabilising at all - and that's when the manager and I spoke and said 'it's time to withdraw the oxygen.'”
Rosemarie died at about 9pm.
Michelle Hassett (middle) with her mother Rosemarie and daughter Sarah during Christmas 2021. Credit: Supplied/Michelle Hassett
Michelle says she felt the replacement staff at the home were “completely out of their depth”.
“Nobody was able to come in to see how everything was going. My mum just died and nobody came in and said ‘are you okay? Do you want some help? What can we do for you?’ you know? My daughters and I did everything that night.”
Before leaving, Michelle and her daughters performed a number of tasks including washing Rosemarie’s body.
“It was just horrific,” Michelle says.
My mum just died and nobody came in and said 'are you okay?'
She says she feared her mother would have died alone in her chair if she and her daughters did not arrive when they did.
Michelle says the care home's manager later told her up to 21 regular staff at the facility were off with COVID-19 or furloughed due to the outbreak at the time of her mother's death. The home has fewer than 50 beds.
Michelle says she does not hold the care home responsible for her mother's death and SBS News has chosen not to name it.
Instead, she says the Omicron wave should not have been allowed to cause as much havoc and death across Australia's aged care system as it has.
“It's not [the home's] fault. I blame the system and the federal government that has just let everybody down. It's just appalling.”
In a statement, the home said it was “devastated” by Rosemarie’s death and confirmed an unspecified number of regular staff were unable to work on the day she died because they had contracted COVID-19.
“Our dedicated staff were in regular contact with Rosemarie’s family members and a partner in care was present at the home on a daily basis to assist with Rosemarie’s support in the week before her passing,” a spokesperson said.
“We have also spoken to and written to Rosemarie’s family a number of times since her passing. As with every resident who passes away after testing positive to COVID-19, we conducted a full and thorough review of the care provided to Rosemarie and the support provided to her family in the days prior to her passing.”
When contacted by SBS News, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Richard Colbeck sent his condolences to Rosemarie's family.
“We extend our condolences to the family - we all understand how difficult it is to lose a loved one,” he said.
“The health and wellbeing of residents in aged care remains an Australian government priority.
“With the spread of infection in the community and subsequent outbreaks in aged care facilities, we acknowledge the pressures on the sector, particularly with the impact of the Omicron variant.
“Surge workforce teams have been vital in supporting providers and residents at a time of genuine need. It is often difficult to come into an unfamiliar environment, particularly during an outbreak within a facility, but the work of these teams is appreciated across the country.”
Senator Colbeck said supports provided to Rosemarie's aged care home included a "Commonwealth case manager, organisation of in-reach PCR testing, provision of an ASPEN Clinical First Responder and medical support team, and access to broader workforce surge support through the RCSA agency portal".
The home said while it frequently had additional staff on-site to assist with the care of COVID-positive residents, it had “no direct staffing support from government surge teams or the Australian Defence Force”.
‘Total abrogation of care’
The federal government has been criticised for how it has handled the Omicron variant and its rapid spread through the aged care sector. According to as of 3 March, there have already been 854 aged care COVID-19 deaths nationally this year. There were 282 across the whole of 2021.
The data shows there were 210 aged care facilities experiencing outbreaks on 3 March, down from 1,198 on 20 January (a day before Rosemarie died), but up from 54 a month earlier.
The government and Senator Colbeck last month .
He was also forced to defend attending a cricket match the previous month after declining to attend a COVID-19 committee hearing days earlier and was criticised last year after he could not tell the same committee how many aged care residents had died after contracting the virus.
Michelle says the federal government’s handling of the Omicron outbreak has pushed frontline workers to the brink and seen aged care residents and people with disability become “sacrificial lambs”.
“People have been working double shifts, triple shifts, including a friend of mine who [on a few occasions did] 36-hour shifts in aged care, because there's just not been enough staff to go around. People are tired. People are dying.
“For Richard Colbeck to sit there and say there's no crisis in aged care is just a total abrogation of the duty of care to elders and people with disability.”
Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Richard Colbeck Source: AAP
Rosemarie, despite having had her second vaccination in May 2021, died still not having received her booster shot.
“I think it certainly would have helped her,” Michelle says.
“The home I work in, in Melbourne, came out of lockdown and all of our residents are triple vaxxed and none of them were unwell. They all got through it really easily.“
The home and Senator Colbeck said the Commonwealth visited Rosemarie’s home to deliver an on-site booster clinic on 28 January, a week after she died.
Senator Colbeck said the Commonwealth initially prioritised the allocation of on-site booster clinics by taking into account the date when at least 80 per cent of residents were double vaccinated. He said the program has been adjusted “to ensure the uptake of boosters for residents”.
‘A very strong, determined woman’
A funeral was held for Rosemarie about a week after she died.
Like Michelle, Rosemarie also spent her career caring for others.
She started a nursing and midwifery course when she was in her early 20s, and worked in aged care after graduating. She eventually rose to be the director of nursing at a home in South Australia.
Rosemarie Hassett in her early 20s when she started her nursing and midwifery course. Credit: Supplied/Michelle Hassett
“She ran the choirs and played music. She loved the theatre and loved the arts and she was always involved in school”.
Rosemarie worked until she was 65 and bought a house in the South Australian countryside with her husband.
“She always wanted to live in a little property,” Michelle says. “And once again, she got involved in the church and the community in the Country Women's Association. She was always volunteering or doing some kind of community-spirited work right up until she went into independent living, and then because of health issues, aged care.”
In December, Rosemarie and her family celebrated her 90th birthday outside the care home.
Rosemarie Hassett during her 90th birthday celebrations. Credit: Supplied/Michelle Hassett
“She was always very vital, and she was funny. She had a fabulous, wicked sense of humour.
“There's no worse patient than a nurse. She said to my auntie once when she was living in the home: ‘they take so long to set the table here’, so she would just get out the knives and forks and just do it herself.
“The staff would then say ‘it’s okay, Rosemarie, we’ll do that,’ but she just pretended she couldn't hear them and carried on.”
Right up until the end ... she was a very strong, determined woman.
Despite it being a traumatic experience, Michelle says she feels “lucky” to have been able to use her nursing expertise and be with Rosemarie during her final hours.
“There are so many other aged care residents out there who died lonely, awful deaths because they were so secluded from their loved ones. No one wants their parents to die alone ... gasping for air.”
Michelle says it is important to remember each person who has died in aged care is “not just a statistic” but “people who have all contributed so much to the country, community and families”.
“My mum was feisty and strong, independent and resourceful. She didn't deserve to go the way she did.”
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