An Ontario nurse explains how COVID-19 gets into care homes, then hits health-care workers
As the weeks went by in March, and COVID-19 cases in Canada kept ticking upwards, Pamella started to worry about residents coming and going from the long-term care facility where she worked.
The registered practical nurse had been caring for elderly residents at the 126-bed Rekai Centre at Sherbourne Place in Toronto for 16 years, administering their medications, hooking them up to dialysis machines, and answering calls from their loved ones.
It was common for those clients to leave for therapy sessions or medical appointments. Amid a pandemic, Pamella feared the constant back and forth could put everyone at risk.
By mid-March, the no-nonsense 54-year-old — whose identity CBC News is protecting due to concerns about her job security — started warning her colleagues COVID-19 was clearly spreading through the city. She felt the home should cancel outside appointments for a while, and stop taking new admissions too.
Instead, Pamella says a resident was sent across the downtown core for his regular therapy appointment at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health — a facility which has since reported multiple outbreaks.
The man later started coughing on March 19. Just over a week later, test results showed he had the virus.
“In the back of my head, I’m thinking, ‘Oh Christ,'” Pamella recalls.
A married mother of three, she didn’t want to risk catching the potentially deadly illness and bringing it home to her family — but it was already too late. The man had mingled with fellow residents at Rekai Centre for days before his cough started, and staff members didn’t wear full protective gear while caring for him until after he showed symptoms.
As Pamella puts it: “We were already exposed.”
Soon after the resident’s results came back, Pamella started to feel feverish, with a bit of a headache. Maybe it was nothing, she thought. Then she started sneezing, too.
On the last Sunday in March, she drove to St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto to get tested.
Four days later, the results came back positive. Pamella had COVID-19.
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