Onions and kitty litter used to mask dying man’s stench in Coffs Harbour nursing home
HE was dying and at the mercy of his nursing home carers. But it’s the treatment of Colin Taylor - including placing onions and kitty litter under his bed to mask the stench of his wounds — that has led two women to speak out about his care.
NSW
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A NURSING home used onions and trays of kitty litter around a dying man’s bed to try and mask the stench from his extensive wounds.
Two nurses who complained about the treatment of Colin Taylor, 74, as well as other issues at the home, lost their jobs last month.
After one made an official complaint, the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner found serious “gaps in care” and “no management strategies” in place to deal with Mr Taylor’s lesion and “no formal assessment of and wound management plan” in place.
Cheryl Gallagher was Mr Taylor’s cousin by marriage but she was also a carer at St Augustine’s for six years and a volunteer at the nursing home for two years before her paid employment.
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“It was appalling,” Ms Gallagher told The Sunday Telegraph.
“A lot of the staff would not look after him because he didn’t have proper dressings for his wound, which emitted an offensive odour.
“They put onions under the bed and trays of kitty litter in there to absorb the odour.
“He had all his meals taken to him in there. I found it distressing.”
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Mr Taylor had been admitted to St Augustine’s, run by Catholic Healthcare, in January 2017. He had a cancerous tumour on his groin and several carers allege the lesion was squeezed by a nurse on February 20, which led to massive blood loss and hospitalisation.
On his return, he was placed in a “palliative care room” that staff said was a former office. He passed away in June 2017.
All nursing staff were required to complete extensive wound management training as a result of the ACCC’s investigation.
Another carer, Marlene Hickson, who worked for Catholic Healthcare for 37 years, said she had watched the nursing home deteriorate as cuts were made.
Last year she complained to head office that the home had run out of linen, that plastic mattress covers were discontinued and bed rails were removed, resulting in one man “falling out of bed three times”.
“I raised my concerns by speaking to the managers then I rang Sydney (Catholic healthcare head office) when we ran out of linen,” the 67-year-old said.
Last month five staff who had all complained about various issues, including staffing, were asked to reapply for their jobs.
Both Ms Hickson and Gallagher were unsuccessful.
“We need a royal commission into aged care, people would be horrified. We can’t deliver the care because there are not enough staff,” Ms Hickson said.
Health Services Union Aged Care Manager Rob Sheehy said the union would pursue an unfair dismissal case, alleging they were whistleblowers, punished for speaking up.
“It is our assertion they were dismissed due to speaking up. Everyone who had voiced concerns were the ones who did not get their jobs back and we think that was a process constructed to unfairly dismiss them,” Mr Sheehy said.
A spokeswoman for Catholic Healthcare said she could not comment on Mr Taylor’s case as the matter was confidential.
The spokeswoman said both nurses who raised concerns were the subject of “performance management” and the “information that has been provided to you is either incorrect or misinformed.”
She said it was not “standard practice to use kitty litter and onions to absorb odours” but that “some wounds have strong odours and these can cause emotional distress and embarrassment for both the individual and others”.
Catholic Healthcare said it would defend any unfair dismissal because “the staff listed were not made redundant due to raising concerns regarding care at St Augustine’s.
Staff were made redundant as part of a restructure.
Two of the three staff were in performance management and undergoing disciplinary processes over an extended period.
In addition, certain concerns were only raised during performance management and when disciplinary processes were escalated, some three months after they were reported to have occurred.”