Dorothy Henderson Lodge at Macquarie Park: Life inside aged-care home after lockdown
The son of a resident inside a coronavirus-affected aged care centre has spoken of his worry for his elderly mother who remains in isolation at the Sydney centre.
Northern District Times
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The doctor who treated the 95-year-old nursing home resident with coronavirus this week said she was shocked to discover her patient had become Sydney’s first COVID-19 fatality.
The general practitioner said she visited the patient at Dorothy Henderson Lodge on February 28 for another condition yet was told by aged care staff that her patient had also developed a cough.
“When I saw her on Friday she had started to cough,” she told the Northern District Times.
At that point there was no thought of coronavirus because she had been a long-term resident who hadn’t gone overseas, and human-to-human transmission wasn’t known in Australia, the doctor said.
The virus has also been detected in a female resident aged in her 70s along with a 53-year-old care worker, as well as the 95-year-old who died on Tuesday.
“When I saw my patient, I didn’t even think twice about her coughing because it happens all the time in the nursing home,” she said.
The general practitioner said she didn’t work on Tuesday and found out early Wednesday that her patient had been taken to hospital late Monday night and died the following day.
And when news broke about a nurse who had tested positive at the same nursing home, the doctor received an alert from NSW Health that her late patient was going to be tested.
She said she was instantly worried when she was told earlier this (Thursday) morning that her 95-year-old patient was a confirmed coronavirus case.
“Obviously I was worried because I had seen her and seen other patients.”
She said she was also concerned with another patient who passed away in the same nursing home earlier last week before news of the infected nurse broke and doesn’t know if they had also possibly contracted COVID-19.
Asked whether she thinks an outbreak in the aged care sector was possible she said she couldn’t be sure.
While she said nursing home workers practice good hygiene she said it was “easy for people to get sick in that environment.’
“NSW Health has been pretty good, but anything could happen.”
While the doctor has no symptoms, she has been instructed by NSW Health to self-isolate for 14 days from last Friday, when she last had contact with the patient.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the community was at “war with coronavirus”.
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Mr Hazzard revealed children from a nearby childcare centre Banksia Cottage in Macquarie Park hadvisited the aged care home on February 24, but all appeared to be well.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said families and children would be assessed for any signs of the virus.
She added it would not be surprising if they identified additional cases in the aged care facility, but it would reflect exposures that have occurred prior to any interventions.
On Thursday afternoon about a dozen staff could be seen through windows of the nursing home. Many were cleaning.
Earlier on Thursday morning media reports suggested Banksia childcare centre had been closed. However, a staff member said those reports were “completely wrong”.
“Yes of course we are still operating. No, it’s not true what they’re saying on the news,” a childcare employee said.
Parents and staffers were seen entering and exiting the childcare this afternoon.
The son of a resident at the coronavirus-affected aged care centre said he was worried because he had not been able to see or talk to his elderly mother, who is in isolation.
John Welling, of Epping, last saw his mother Marie Welling last Thursday, but yesterday got a call and a text from Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park informing him the aged care centre was in lockdown
He was also told one of his mother’s carers had been confirmed with the deadly coronavirus.
“It was a shock when I got the phone call and I can’t have any contact with her but she had no symptoms when I saw her last week,” he said.
“It would be a different story if she had symptoms. However she does have a lung problem and she is 91,” he said.
Mr Welling said whenever staff bring meals or medication to his mother they are dressed from head to toe in protective clothing.
“She was exposed to the virus earlier than this week but because she is symptom-free they haven’t tested her for coronavirus. We have been told that if they do test her they will tell us first,” he said.
Mr Welling is now self-isolating and withdrawing from friends and family including young grandchildren and has alerted all the people he has had contact with since seeing his mother last week.
“I told my pastor at church and won’t be going to church or going out. The church has decided not to put out food after services to minimise any infection,” he said.
Mr Welling said he has been well-informed by the staff at BaptistCare which owns the aged-care centre and there is a hotline for family to call.
“My mother has been at Dorothy Henderson Lodge for more than six years and they have had lockdown situations before, with flu or gastro. She has had very good care there,” he said.
At the centre on Thursday it was eerily quiet.
Curtains at residential units beside the aged care remained closed and a few couriers drove in and out donning face masks as rain pelted down
A nurse leaving the site said she worked in the Shalom facility next to Dorothy Henderson lodge within the Baptist Care complex.
She said they were taking precautions like wearing the full body suit for flu cases.
“At the moment we are using personal protective equipment (PPE) and using infection control strategies,” she told Northern District Times.
A visitor to the nursing home said he was not concerned about the outbreak.
“They are good hands. You can catch anything even going on a bus,” he said.
It comes just days after a health care worker at the same aged care also contracted the virus (known as COVID-19).
Some residents and workers drove in out of the Baptist Care complex, but refused to speak to media.
It comes as The Australian reported that aged care workers collectively called in sick to the BaptistCare centre.
As well as the death of a 95-year-old resident, there has been an infection of two other residents — an 82-year-old male resident and a female resident in her 70s.