COVID-19 patients left dead in their beds for hours at Melbourne aged care facility

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COVID-19 patients left dead in their beds for hours at Melbourne aged care facility

Elderly coronavirus patients lay dead in their beds for up to six hours at an aged care home in Melbourne as Victoria battles to contain its second wave of the deadly virus.  

Epping Gardens Aged Care in the city’s north has had 90 COVID-19 infections and six residents have died.

Staff at the nursing home were left struggling to care for as many as 14 patients each.

Harrowing scenes were captured outside the facility this week as heartbroken relatives begged health authorities to let them see their parents and grandparents.

Epping Gardens Aged Care in the city’s north has had 90 COVID-19 infections and six residents have died (pictured: a body is carried out from Epping Gardens on Wednesday)

A distraught family member is seen outside the Epping Gardens nursing home in Melbourne this week

Doctors have claimed that several residents with COVID-19 at the Epping Gardens aged care home were left dead in their beds for up to six hours (resident is transported to hospital on Thursday)

Senior doctors and health sources told The Australian that several residents of Epping Gardens were left dead in their beds for hours on end this week.

Personnel from the Australian Defence Force were brought into the home to help staff weighed down by an influx of sick residents.

One doctor said the residents struck down with coronavirus were also suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and pneumonia.

On Monday staff members were looking after as many as 13 or 14 patients each, a doctor claimed.

Aged care homes have no set patient to staff ratios but hospitals recommend around five patients to every worker. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Epping Gardens and the Department of Health for comment. 

Ten out of 14 deaths recorded on Thursday were from aged cares homes after Victoria suffered its worst day of cases since the pandemic began recording 723 new infections.

There has been 928 residents at aged care facilities infected with coronavirus and 59 associated deaths.

Dozens have since been wheeled out on stretchers and rushed to hospitals.

One doctor said the residents struck down with coronavirus were also suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and pneumonia (pictured medical workers transport Epping Gardens resident to hospital on Thursday)

A woman (right, in white top) is seen begging public health officials to see her relative at the Epping Gardens Aged Care facility this week

A woman pleads with medical workers outside the Epping Gardens facility on Friday

Emergency field doctor Professor John Moloney has been working at the two hardest-hit facilities, Epping Gardens and St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner.

From Saturday to Wednesday Moloney helped transport vulnerable patients to several hospitals around the city.

‘Many of the residents are extremely frail so they require a very high level of nursing,’ Professor Moloney told The Age. 

‘They require help with everything from feeding, washing, drinking to cleaning. It was really felt they couldn’t be safely nursed where they were.’

He said that every time a healthcare worker leaves a patient’s room they have to change their protective clothing including gowns and face masks.

‘What it shows is that there are significant pockets of society that are very vulnerable and it doesn’t take much to tip them over,’ he said.

Another worker arrived home in tears after an elderly resident told her she wanted to die after losing her husband. 

One doctor said on Monday staff members were looking after as many as 13 or 14 patients each – far above the recommended number of five patients in hospitals

Personnel from the Australian Defence Force were brought into the Epping Gardens nursing home to help staff weighed down by an influx of sick residents

A body is removed from the Epping Garden aged care facility on Thursday

‘I went into a room and the woman was hysterical,’ she told ABC radio on Thursday.

‘I found out her husband had just passed away that morning. She was in her room alone, inconsolable, saying “my husband of 56 years is gone and he suffered”.

‘What was so heartbreaking was not only had she lost her husband, but she was sitting alone. This woman who should have people around her consoling her, loving her, caring for her, but there is nobody there and she is alone.’

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said ‘everything’ was being done to support these patients. 

‘To family members, to residents, please know and understand we are, in a joint sense, doing everything we possibly can to provide the care and support that you or a loved one needs,’ he said on Thursday.

‘That is not an easy task. But the effort is absolutely enormous.’

St Basil’s Homes for the Aged has had 111 cases and Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer has had 94 infections. 

Outlook Gardens in Dandenong North has had 49 infections. 

Dozens of other aged care facilities have reported COVID-19 cases.

Aged care homes have also been hit hard across the world with a recent report from the New York Times stating 35 per cent of all deaths from COVID-19 in the US were in aged care.

In the UK around half of their death toll has come from aged care residents with more than 20,000 patients dying.  

An Epping Gardens resident is carried out by ambulance officers on Thursday

Nursing homes have been hit significantly amid the pandemic as the Epping Gardens facility’s cases jump to 90

Source: Daily Mail Australia | News Colony

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