Longtime N.B. politician waited 7 months in hospital for nursing home bed: family

Former New Brunswick MLA Sheldon waited seven months for a nursing home bed.

To most New Brunswickers, Sheldon Lee was a long-time MLA, former transportation minister in Frank McKenna’s government and a large force behind the twinning of the Moncton to Fredericton highway.

But to his loved ones, he was a storyteller, their personal GPS, a hobby fisherman and “the pillar” of the family.

That’s how his granddaughter is choosing to remember him, despite the difficulties he faced during the last year of his life.

“It’s difficult to share this knowing how proud and how private he was about his personal life. But I do know that he would want us to advocate for others,” said Taylor Lee-Barrio, Lee’s granddaughter.

Lee suffered a stroke two days after Christmas last year that left his right side mostly paralyzed.

He was initially treated at the Saint John Regional Hospital’s neuro intensive care unit, but after three weeks, it was determined Lee could not safely return home.

Lee would have to wait in hospital for a nursing home bed.

“He was very anxious and uneasy and there were numerous occasions where upon, you know, leaving his room, he would be sort of begging us not to leave him there,” Lee-Barrio said. “It was really heartbreaking to see that and how he was processing that.”

Lee-Barrio said her family noticed immediately the difference between the ICU and the alternate level of care (ALC) unit he was moved to, where he would stay until a long-term care placement was found.

She said family members visited often and found Lee in various states of distress, often restrained in a chair, with a tray holding him in – alone in a hallway or in his room.

Physiotherapy services were no longer an option on the unit, like they had been in the ICU, and Lee-Barrio recalls her grandfather suffering from infections that went untreated for days.

She said because of the stroke, he had difficulty swallowing and using utensils. This had been communicated to health-care staff, Lee-Barrio said.

“On numerous occasions we came in to find that he was left with a tray of food, including hot water, and other food, that he was not able to feed himself, but he had attempted to do so without any supervision, without any assistance,” she said. “And so we would find the contents of his lunch all over him and all over the bed. And it was just very difficult to see that, to see that he, you know, was left to struggle.”

On another occasion, Lee-Barrio found him alone in a hallway, restrained in a chair. He had spilled a bottle of water all over himself and his clothes and feet were soaked.

The family hired private physiotherapy, who determined Lee could walk to the washroom if assisted. But staff weren’t available to help him.

“Patients are left in soiled diapers, as I’m sure you’ve been told by other families,” she said. “And so because they did not have sufficient staff to take him to the washroom, we were told that he would have to be left like that for hours on end, which was incredibly demoralizing and humiliating for him.”

They said they were told the policy was to change patients once in the morning, and once in the evening.

Lee-Barrio said there were serious breakdowns in communication, where nursing staff had to repeatedly ask family members about his needs because they weren’t in his chart.

He was in the ALC unit for seven months before getting a placement at a nursing home in Quispamsis, where he spent just a few months before he died on Oct. 21.

Lee-Barrio says by speaking out, she’s not trying to assign blame, only spark some change.

“I think the issue is really at that systemic level. And I certainly don’t want to imply that this is a reflection of the dedication and hard work of the nursing staff there,” she said. “They’re simply short-staffed.”

In speaking to reporters at the legislature Wednesday, Health Minister Dr. John Dornan confirmed staffing is part of the problem.

“We do need more staff, but we need to look at how we organize our ALC patients in the hospital. For example, if they were co-located so that we would give the services that people in the community get, for example, exercise activities, socialization events. And so our RHA’s (regional health authorities) are looking at that to give better care. And we’re looking at upping our staffing so that we can provide that care,” he said.

It’s difficult for Lee’s family to share his experience, but Lee-Barrio feels it’s what he would have wanted.

“When I talk to my grandfather about his political career and sort of how he lived his life, he told me that you should always try to help and that even if you can’t solve a problem, you can always make it better,” she said. “And that is really what I’m asking the government and others to do here is, to try to make this situation better for my grandfather and for countless others who are in this situation today.”

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