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The coroner dismissed a nurse’s insistence that the death of a long-term care home resident was unexpected and required an autopsy, the inquiry into the long-term care system heard Monday.
Nurse Laura Long, who works at Caressant Care in Woodstock, Ont., testified that the death of Maureen Pickering in March 2014 raised red flags among nursing staff because the 79-year-old had been walking around the day before.
“I have seen this woman die before my eyes, and I thought it was unexpected. The doctor said to me ‘No death in a nursing home is unexpected,” Long told the public inquiry.
“She was walking around and next thing we know she was in a wheelchair and she slid off and died right there. To me, that’s sudden and unexpected … We [nurses) can’t tell the doctors what to do. We have to go with what they say.”
A mark of “sudden and/or unexpected” on the institutional death form at Caressant Care would have triggered an autopsy, which could have shown that Pickering died of an insulin overdose.
This is the second time the inquiry has heard about a death that was flagged for the coroner but wasn’t investigated.
‘Grim Reaper’
The public inquiry is also expected to hear from the Ontario Nurses Association, the union that went to bat for Wettlaufer when she made medication errors and was inappropriate with patients and staff.
Two representatives from the Ontario Nurses Association are expected to testify at the Elizabeth Wettlaufer inquiry.
Long said Monday that Wettlaufer was often crass and inappropriate with fellow nurses and personal support workers, and that she sometimes made sexual advances to students working volunteer shifts at Caressant Care.
But Wettlaufer also sang for residents and brought them treats. She also participated in the annual Halloween party at the home. At least once, Wettlaufer dressed up as the Grim Reaper.
Colleagues to testify
They are among 16 witnesses who are scheduled to go before commissioner Eileen Gillese this week at the Elgin County courthouse in St. Thomas, Ont.
Others expected to testify include Wettlaufer’s former colleagues from Caressant Care home in Woodstock, where she killed seven people, and from Meadow Park long-term care in London, where she killed one patient.
The Long-Term Care Homes Public Inquiry was established on Aug. 1, 2017 after Wettlaufer was sentenced to eight concurrent life terms. It began hearings in St. Thomas on June 5, and is examining how Wettlaufer’s crimes went undetected for so long.
Her killing spree began in 2007 and continued until 2016, when she finally confessed to a psychiatrist and a social worker. Until then, her employers, police and Ontario’s licensing body for nurses had no idea eight patients had been murdered and six more poisoned with injections of massive doses of insulin.
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