Protection of vulnerable seniors needs higher priority

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on January 25, 2019.

This week a 93-year-old woman froze to death outside her seniors’ retirement complex after a fire alarm had resulted in her leaving the building.

Helene Rowley Hotte exited the building after a fire alarm at 4:15 a.m. and she could not re-enter because the doors were locked. She was not discovered until seven hours later.

Apparently a broadcasted message told residents that there was no need to evacuate the building but Hotte had a hearing impairment and might not have heard.

The alarm automatically unlocks the doors to allow for evacuation and the doors lock again when the fire alarm is reset.

Because this incident took place in Montreal we may not have heard about it except for the fact that this woman was the mother of Gilles Duceppe, the former Bloc Quebecois leader.

An investigation is apparently taking place but media have reported there were only four staff on duty that night at this seniors’ complex.

With so few on duty it would have taken take some time for the complex to be checked to ensure all residents were safe. We don’t know, at this stage, if there was such an attempt but it seems unlikely because Hotte was discovered outside seven hours later only when police were called because people had noticed a body.

Three weeks ago in Coaldale a senior died in an apartment complex. It was RCMP who initially responded at 1 a.m. to a fire in the three-storey building.

A thick wall of smoke prevented immediate access to a specific unit and when the fire department was able to enter the elderly woman could not be revived.

In March last year a senior in Ontario died in a fire. When firefighters gained access to one unit the resident was discovered.

We pay a lot of lip service about caring for seniors, hear about plans to have sprinkler systems in all seniors’ residences, and are told there are detailed plans to safely evacuate seniors from retirement residences if there is ever a fire.

We are also told that there are plans to help those who are not physically able to evacuate a building on their own.

It is good to hear there are plans but tragically the circumstances this week indicate that these plans may not always be adequately thought through.

The one thing we know for sure is that seniors are extremely vulnerable.

In Montreal there was an assumption that all residents including Hotte could hear an intercom message about not needing to evacuate her building. You would think staff at seniors’ residents would be very aware that some of the residents have difficulty hearing.

The other really bothersome aspect is that no staff, even the additional day staff that would have come on shift, noticed that Hotte was missing. Why on earth did it take seven hours to find her?

It is time to get more serious about our responsibility to protect seniors. We have enough layers of government overseeing the care of seniors. Every protocol in the case of a fire should be checked and rechecked so that this never happens again.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions, email her at gslade@medicinehatnews.com or call her at 403-528-8635.)

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