Tara Murray
Nicole McGuinness is angry and furious, but most of all heartbroken, following the death of her mother Kathleen Gribble from COVID-19.
Mrs Gribble was a resident at Epping Gardens nursing home where she caught coronavirus before being transferred to hospital where she died 16 days later.
Mrs McGuinness and her family have joined a class action lawsuit against Epping Gardens as they seek answers to why their beloved mother and grandmother died.
“I’m angry, I’m furious, heartbroken and I’m so angry,” Mrs McGuinness said.
“The owners, the aged care system and the government, someone has to be stepping up and saying ’we’re going to fix this’.”
Mrs Gribble, who was 75, first went to Epping Gardens for transitional and respite care late last year before becoming a permanent resident in April.
Mrs Guinness said her mum was happy.
“When the doctors came to us and told us there was no way she could go back to independent living, my mum turned around and said ’if I can stay at Epping Gardens permanently, I’m happy here and this is where I want to live’.
“We said yep, we were happy with that. We hoped putting her in Epping Gardens she would last for many more years and have lots of years with her grandchildren.”
When the first COVID-19 lockdown restrictions hit, the nursing home told families they couldn’t visit for the residents’ safety.
Mrs McGuiness abided by this and stayed away for 11 weeks before getting permission to visit for one hour each week.
They managed to get three visits in, the last on Mrs Gribble’s birthday, before visits were cancelled with COVID-19 cases rising across the state.
“It was hard, but we were protecting mum and all the residents and [thought] that if we can stay away, there was no way corona can get in there,” Mrs McGuinness said.
Mrs McGuinness said it was about that time that issues started. She said her mum complained that her favourite carers had disappeared. One day, after having an accident overnight, it took until nearly lunchtime for Mrs Gribble to be showered and the bed changed.
Mrs Guinness said once the first case of COVID-19 was detected at Epping Gardens things started to snowball.
Families were notified of the case on the Sunday and just two days later, Mrs Gribble was showing symptoms.
“My mum started to get unwell, we could tell on the phone. She … had a sore throat, had a really bad cough, she was very raspy when she spoke, I knew then she had all the classic symptoms.”
Mrs McGuinness said she was told her mum was positive on a Sunday, and was then left wanting answers.
She said Epping Gardens staff couldn’t tell her if her mum was going to hospital and then phone calls and emails were left unanswered for the rest of the day.
Mrs McGuinness said Epping Gardens made contact the next day, saying her mum wasn’t critical and she was doing OK. Twenty minutes later a doctor called to say they needed to discuss her mum’s advanced care plan.
Mrs Gribble was taken to hospital the next day. She spent 16 days in hospital and died on August 16.
Ms McGuinness said no one from Epping Gardens or the managing company Heritage Care had contacted her since her mother’s death.
“You don’t know who to believe when you do get information from them,” she said.
“We never had a question about the care she received prior to this. We had no idea what happened behind closed doors. Did she miss medications and meals? I don’t know?
Carbone Lawyers is handling the class action case for the families of residents in Epping Gardens.
Managing partner Tony Carbone said as of Tuesday, 25 families had indicated they would be part of the class action, and that number was growing.
Mr Carbone said he had heard stories from families of poor hygiene, residents losing weight, dehydration, issues with medication and residents being found soiled.
“The key to what they are doing is to ensure that there is a change… They say no one should be going through what they’re going through.”
