Erin Hayes spent day and night at her mother’s bedside as she lay dying at Michael Garron Hospital this month.
Nancy Hayes, 81, had been suffering from lung cancer, vascular dementia and end-stage kidney failure, said Hayes’s daughter.
“I had promised my dad — he passed away 16 years ago and I had promised him and my mom — that if ever the time came that you were unable to advocate for yourself, that I would be sure to be there so I did. Day and night for 16 days,” she said.
But on Sunday afternoon, Hayes said she was forced to leave her mother. Three hours later she learned she had died.
“I feel robbed of those precious final moments,” she said.
It was on Friday, Hayes said, she awoke around 4 a.m. feeling something biting her.
“I put on the light and I looked at my arm and I could see that I had the three bites in a row and I quickly examined my mother and noticed a couple on her,” she said, adding, “my thoughts were, ‘These are bedbugs.’”
Hayes said she went to address concerns with the nursing staff.
“The nurse seemed upset by it but wasn’t sure at all how to handle the situation, so it moved to the nurse manager. And when I spoke with her, I was met with resistance and deflection and saying to me, ‘Are you sure it can’t be something else? Do you maybe want to go to your family doctor?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not,’” she said.
Hayes said she was offered an “upholstered chair” to place by her mother’s bedside and that the staff appeared in “hazmat-style suits” with a machine that looked like a “steam machine” to clean the room.
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“The protocol was that they would give my mother a special bath and that her bed would need to be changed. In her frail state, they weren’t even able to be turning her at this point, so the move from the one bed to the other on Friday really took a lot,” she said.
Two days later, Hayes said her mother’s palliative care doctor advised her the end is near and that she should contact her family.
“I leaned in to give mom a hug and a kiss and that’s when I saw the live one walking across her pillow,” she said.
Hayes said she again addressed this with the nurse on staff and showed her the pillow with the insect crawling on it.
“One of the nurses started yelling at me to not come near her with it. ‘It needs to go in a bag, you need to double bag it,’ and then it was announced her room number and her name and the nurses all stood together and said, like, ‘She must be bringing them in.’ As if it was something I had brought to the hospital,” she said.
Hayes took a video of the insect crawling on the pillow and showed it to Global News.
She also provided photographs appearing to show bug bites on her mother’s body and bites on her own arm and neck.
Global News showed the video to a pest control company. The staff could neither verify nor confirm whether the insect crawling on the pillow is a bedbug or another type of bug.
In her final hours, Hayes said she felt anxious, afraid and unable to be close to her mother.
“I came home and I had to undress outside and heat treat all of my belongings and had a nice, good, long shower. And then I missed it. She passed away,” she said, crying.
Hayes said she feels “absolutely horrified” by the experience.
“My worst nightmare, absolutely my worst,” she said.
In a statement, Michael Garron Hospital told Global News the hospital was alerted to a report of bedbugs in a patient room on Friday, Sept. 26.
“As soon as our team became aware, we acted immediately and without hesitation to vacate the room and begin treatment.. As high-traffic public spaces, most hospitals, including MGH, have a strategy in place to treat and eliminate bedbugs. Our staff followed the correct protocols to ensure the situation was addressed in a timely manner.”
“I feel like this is Ford’s Ontario. It’s unacceptable on so many levels,” said Hayes. “Our system is so broken and so deprived and I don’t want anyone else to ever have to experience the same thing in such a heightened time, in a hard time.”
Global News reached out to the Ministry of Health and a spokesperson provided the following statement.
“Hospitals must implement evidence-based Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) practices, guided by standards and protocols referenced in the Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS), which are issued under the authority of the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA),” the statement reads.
“These practices aim to prevent the transmission of microorganisms, including those potentially associated with pests such as bed bugs, and include measures like environmental cleaning, isolation procedures, and staff training.”
It’s a situation that underscored Hayes’ concerns for the province.
“I fear for Ontarians that need health care. And especially if you’re unable to advocate for yourself. It’s very scary,” said Hayes.
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