Now the deaths have slowed, Newmarch families want answers
Fay Rendoth’s death would have been No.98 in the nation’s COVID-19 fatality tally had authorities accepted she died of the virus. Now her family want to know why her death didn’t count.
NSW
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Fay Rendoth loved a singsong and lengthy chat on the phone. When members of her extensive family would call at Newmarch House, she would gamely talk for an hour asking after relatives and bemoaning life in the care home which she didn’t especially care for.
Three Fridays ago, when her nephew Graham Rendoth rang, she was feeling a little off colour.
“She was a little narky that day about the treatment she was receiving at the care home, the bathroom door didn’t work, it had been stuck for some weeks and she couldn’t get into it,” he said.
“She mentioned she had been ill, that there was something on her chest that wouldn’t shift.
“She said it felt like the flu, she was chesty but she was slowly getting better. They weren’t allowed out their rooms, there was no singalongs anymore.”
Seven days later great-grandmother Mrs Rendoth, 92, died.
Her death would have been labelled No.98 in the nation’s COVID-19 fatality tally, had NSW Health authorities accepted she died of the virus and not “other conditions”.
The Anglicare Sydney managers promptly fired off a press release stating they were “devastated” at the loss of yet another life at the beleaguered facility sprawled in the leafy environs of Caddens, in the far west of Sydney.
The widower was the 17th resident to die at the home, however NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said hers was not being counted among the COVID-19 deaths.
“We understand that the person had COVID, had recovered, had other illnesses and was elderly and died, the doctor believes (her death) was not directly related to the COVID,” he said.
Mrs Rendoth’s family – three daughters, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren – are furious.
“They’re upset, Newmarch House has whitewashed over what happened to Aunty Fay,” her nephew Graham, 63, told The Saturday Telegraph.
“All I can say is if she hadn’t had COVID, she perhaps would’ve found the strength to fight other illnesses.
“Sure she was breathing heavily when I spoke to her but she said she was beginning to feel better.
“It was a shock when she died.
“She was of that generation of great minds, she remembered all 60 cousins’ names and second cousins, knew their birthdays and their second names, she was healthy in the mind but could not physically manage anymore.
“She knew she had COVID-19, she had been in the home for less than a year and wanted to leave Newmarch House.”
The coronavirus hotspot that Newmarch House has become — the nation’s second worst source of infections after the Ruby Princess fiasco — has infected a total of 71 residents and staff, and has not abated in the six weeks since the first case was detected on April 11.
Among the roll-call of Newmarch coronavirus fatalities are Ann Fahey, 76, Leone Corrigan, 89, and Alice Bacon, 93.
Six residents who previously tested positive for COVID-19 but who have recovered — including Jan Doble, Patricia Shea, 76, and Yvonne Vane, 89 — are being kept in their rooms and cared for by staff using personal protective equipment (PPE).
As the sheer scale of the outbreak became apparent, while managers struggled to overcome severe shortages of PPE and recruit sufficient expert nursing staff to care for the home’s wilting coronavirus victims, the aged care watchdog stepped in to issue direction alongside NSW Health.
Signs are improving. Increasing numbers of residents are returning negative swabs and getting 15 minutes’ sunshine therapy daily.
Numbers of staff and residents testing positive to COVID-19 have dwindled and original staff forced to undergo quarantine are back this week.
Still, uncertainty remains. An infectious diseases expert from Nepean Hospital, Dr James Branley, stirred the hornet’s nest this week in a webinar hosted by the Older Persons Advocacy Network when he admitted no X-rays are done on site to monitor fluids or clots in the lungs of Newmarch residents, although they can be transferred to hospital depending on the severity of their condition.
“There are improvements but that doesn’t mean we did everything perfectly. Clearly we didn’t,” he said.
“There is a large multidisciplinary treating team providing integrated medical care to residents and the same guidelines are used as in hospital.
“No drug treatment and chest X-rays or other scans of the patient make a difference to how we treat patients.
“We have learned that there are some very simple things like positioning of patients that can be really beneficial.”
Some families are still battling to remove their loved ones from the home fearful of a second wave when normality returns.
“The six that have recovered should go to hospital or return to family, they’re sitting ducks waiting to get it again,” said Liz Lane, whose mother Rose Davies, 84, is in palliative care.
“It’s beyond me they were never sent to hospital in the first place and now my mum has had a health setback and needs treatment, she needs to go to hospital for an X-ray as there are none on site.”
As life begins to settle down at Newmarch with plans to lift visiting restrictions by July, the angered families have peeled away from protesting outside the home every day at 4pm, except for Anthony Bowe, whose mother Patricia Shea contracted COVID-19 and is now recovered, and Ms Lane, whose mother has dementia.
Screens have now been erected around residents’ homes, which prevent relatives from cheerfully waving to their relatives gathered on the street. And mesh is pinned to a wrought iron fence along a pathway beside the home, which has been erected for “the privacy of residents”, an Anglicare spokesman insisted.
“It was a few months since I spoke to Aunty Fay and I’m glad I did,” said Mr Rendoth. “She was a special soul but with so many dying at the home it seemed impossible to visit.
“She was lonely, maybe at least now she won’t have to miss her husband Ken, who she lost five years ago.”