Carol Talarico hasn’t had much sleep lately because she’s been worrying about her dad.
The 94-year-old man went to the emergency room at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary on Monday because he wasn’t feeling well. The next day he was admitted to unit 62.
“We didn’t think there was COVID[-19] in the unit that he was being transferred to, because we did check with the doctor and we did check online, but nowhere online did it say that the unit had any cases on it,” Talarico said.
On Friday, AHS announced that three units are now under watch status. General medicine units 62 and 36 and cardiac unit 82 are on the list. Outbreak watch means the unit is being monitored for potential COVID-19 cases.
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6 more COVID-19 cases confirmed as additional Foothills units on ‘outbreak watch’
The units under watch are in addition to the ones that AHS had confirmed earlier in the week are dealing with outbreaks. Those are cardiac units 81 and 103A and general medicine unit 32.
Talarico’s dad was discharged on Wednesday. That’s when she said she first found out from another staff member there was a COVID-19 case on unit 62. Her family doesn’t think they were given all the information about what was happening on the unit.
“I don’t think I was exactly told the entire story.
“This is probably something that happened, I believe, because of the stress level and likely due to understaffing. I don’t think it was intentional but it’s very distressing,” Talarico said.
Talarico has since filed a complaint with AHS over the matter. She worries about a lack of staff and for patients who don’t have anyone advocating for them, and she worries about her dad having go back to the hospital.
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Coronavirus: 3rd patient dies, patient screening increased amid Foothills hospital outbreaks
“If I had to bring him back in, if it was absolutely necessary I would. But I’m not exactly sure how I would proceed. I would definitely do a lot more investigation,” Talarico said.
As of Friday 18 patients and 17 health care workers at the Foothills Medical Centre had tested positive for COVID-19. There are 136 health care staff from the hospital self-isolating and there have been three deaths related to the outbreaks.
AHS has not yet responded to a request from Global News as to how long the units have been in “outbreak watch” status.