Nine residents of Bobcaygeon long-term care home die following COVID-19 outbreak

Nine residents of a long-term care home in Bobcaygeon have died following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the facility’s medical director has confirmed to CTV News.

Dr. Michelle Snarr, the medical director of Pinecrest Nursing Home, told CTV News Monday that nine residents of the long-term care facility have died “so far” and more fatalities are expected.

The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit said Thursday that three residents and 14 staff members at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19.

Officials, who declared a respiratory outbreak at the facility on March 18, said while no additional tests have been conducted on residents, 35 others have developed symptoms.

Two patients passed away last week and on Monday, Snarr confirmed that an additional seven residents have since died along with the 82-year-old wife of a resident of the facility.

“It’s overwhelmingly sad,” Snarr said in an interview with CTV News. “Once we heard it was COVID, we all knew it was going to run like wildfire through the facility.”

Dr. Lynn Noseworthy, the medical officer of health for the local public health unit, said last week that additional tests were not conducted because they “already had confirmation that the virus was in the home.”

“This outbreak of COVID-19 is currently the largest outbreak in the province and really brings home how devastating and deadly this virus can be for older people in our communities,” Noseworthy said.

“I am asking everyone to do everything they can to stop the spread of this virus – if not to protect yourself but to protect others who need our care.”

Snarr said she sent a message to the families of the residents earlier this month to inform them of the grim situation.

“The reason I sent the email was to give them a heads up that this is not normal times,” she said.

“Under normal times, we would send people to the hospital if that was the family’s wishes, but we knew that was not going to be possible knowing that so many people were going to all get sick at once and also knowing the only way to save a life from COVID is with a ventilator and to put a frail, elderly person on a ventilator, that’s cruel.”

Snarr said COVID-19 patients typically spend 11 to 21 days on a ventilator.

“Every day you are on a ventilator, you lose muscle mass, you lose weight. The longer this goes on, you are going to develop bedsores,” she noted.

“Dementia is permanently worsened by even something as simple as a regular pneumonia…to endure that… their quality of life after would just be abysmal.”

‘This is truly a horrible time,’  administrator says

In a news release issued last week, the local public health unit said after the outbreak was declared, staff followed “all proper procedures” to contain the virus.

Sick staff went into self-isolation at home and arrangements were made for them to be tested for the virus, officials said.

Residents were isolated, all group activities were suspended, meals were no longer served to residents in the dining room, and the facility was closed to visitors.

Staff who were asymptomatic began wearing protective equipment, but officials say given the incubation period of COVID-19, many employees and residents were likely already infected with the virus.

“This is truly a horrible time for the families and friends of the residents, as well as our staff,” Mary Carr, the administrator of Pinecrest Nursing Home, said in the news release.

“We have a number of medically fragile and vulnerable people living in our home; our residents are like family to our staff. Our sympathies go out to all of the families and friends of the people we have lost.”

Jessica Echeverri, whose 98-year-old grandmother is one of the Pinecrest residents suspected of being infected with COVID-19, posted about the outbreak on Facebook, saying that her family is “devastated by this illness.”

“This tragedy will haunt the community forever. There are many loved and respected people who live there,” she wrote.

“The public may look at this case and think that these residents contracted this terrible virus because of their age, which may be true, but I urge them to consider if they would want to be the person who gave it to someone there, directly or indirectly.”

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