Resident’s daughter slams St Basil’s as ‘a circus’ amid Covid outbreak
Staff at St Basil’s aged care home in Fawkner were ordered by managers to take off their face masks because they were “scaring the residents”, an inquest into the deaths of 50 residents has been told.
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St Basil’s staff were ordered by managers to take off their face masks despite colleagues testing positive to the deadly coronavirus.
An inquest into the deaths of 50 residents heard that on the same day a second worker tested positive, staff at the Fawkner home were being told to remove protective coverings.
The Coroner’s Court heard St Basil’s staff were first told in a meeting on July 9, 2020, that a colleague had the virus.
“Staff members were quite concerned about how they were going to care for residents who had Covid or what the plan was,” Personal Care Assistant James Mee said.
“(Director of nursing) Vicki (Kos) just laughed at staff concerns.”
Annabelle Fitzpatrick was the second worker at the Fawkner home to test positive to coronavirus two days later, on July 11.
She said she was told not to spread the information by nurse manager Jagmeet Nagra because it would cause a “panic”.
The new mother, who had returned from maternity leave three weeks earlier, said she was “expecting support from them but instead they’re thinking more, don’t spread”.
Jasmina Velkoski, another personal care assistant, said she wore her own mask to work on July 11 after she got tested the night before, and “pinched” a surgical mask from the only box available for visitors at reception.
But she was told by Ms Nagra: “We are scaring the residents because they don’t know what’s going on and we are wearing face masks.”
She said Ms Nagra told her it was OK to come to work, and she feared getting the sack.
“I heard that Vicki Kos had threatened that if staff didn’t come to work, they shouldn’t come back ever,” Ms Velkoski said.
That same day, on July 11, she said a colleague went to see Ms Kos and “when he came back he was not wearing his face mask”.
“He told me that Vicki told him to take it off.”
Mr Mee also gave evidence that senior nurse Francis Hernandez told a colleague - wearing a mask because a staffer tested positive - to take it off on July 10.
Families of residents were also asking: “Why isn’t anyone here wearing masks?”
Kathy Bourinaris, the daughter of late resident Fotini Atzarakis said Ms Nagra told her: “There’s nothing to worry about, we sanitize and wash our hands regularly and keep our distance where possible.”
“Throughout all my visits at St Basil’s I never saw any St Basil’s staff members wearing protective gear,” she said.
BED OFFERED TO COVID VICTIM AFTER DEATH
The daughter of a St Basil’s resident who died from Covid-19 was called by the home four months after her mother’s death and asked if she still wanted a bed.
Kathy Bourinaris gave evidence at the inquest into the death of 50 St Basil’s residents and said the call came from an administration staffer called “Nicky”, who said she had just found the paperwork for her mum, Fotini Atzarakis, and asked “are you interested in coming in”.
Ms Atzarakis, who had Parkinson’s, had gone into St Basil’s for two weeks of respite care on June 29 and was locked in the home amid a Covid-19 outbreak from July 9.
But she tested positive to Covid-19 on July 17 and died in hospital just 12 days later.
“I was driving ... I was told if my mother was still interested in care, in respite, if we wanted to tour the facility,” Ms Bourinaris told the court.
“I felt sick, I had to pull over.
“I was like, ‘My f---ing mother passed away there and you’re calling me to tell me does she still want to come in for respite and want a bed?
“How much worse can this get? Four months later and they still don’t know what they’re doing.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
She said she couldn’t tell her father, who still doesn’t know to this day.
The mistaken call followed a disastrous period where Ms Bourinaris said her family received no contact from St Basil’s when the first positive cases were confirmed.
She described the home as “a circus” and said she only received information because she repeatedly called St Basil’s.
“The first time I heard from St Basil’s they wanted to do a one-year memorial,” she said.
“I got nothing from nobody.”
Ms Bourinaris described her family’s decision to put her mum, who had a “beautiful heart, beautiful soul” into two weeks of respite care to give her father — her full time carer — a short break and see if it was something she would want to make permanent.
Restrictions were easing in June 2020 and restaurants had been opening, giving the family the assurance that it was the right call.
The family would see Ms Atzarakis for window visits at St Basil’s, with Ms Bourinaris saying she had some happy news to share that her mother was expecting her first great-grandchild.
“She would have been beside herself,” Ms Bourinaris said.
But her father said to wait until his wife returned home so they could hug and share the picture of the ultrasound.
“It never happened.”
Ms Atzarakis contracted the virus but wasn’t immediately transferred to hospital because she was asymptomatic.
Her daughter remembered when she finally did go to the Austin Hospital and they had their last phone conversation on July 19.
“I’m not well, I’m scared ... but how are you and how’s the family,” she remembered her mother saying.
Ms Bourinaris recalled: “She was in hospital, her focus again was her family.”
“I said, ‘You’ll be home soon’.”
But her mother deteriorated quickly.
Phone calls soon became one-way as nurses held the phone to the ear of a non-responsive Ms Atzarakis so she could listen to her family’s voices.
She died on July 29.
“Someone needs to be held accountable,” Ms Bourinaris told the court through tears.
“My mother should still be here and so should these other 49 people, it’s just so wrong.
“I miss her like crazy — she shouldn’t have died that way.”
Residents Arthur and Anastasia Samaras were separated when he tested positive on July 17.
He was sent to the Austin Hospital before soon being returned back to the infected home because he wasn’t showing symptoms, with a doctor saying, “we can’t do anything for him”.
Their former daughter in law Maria Loucas said Mrs Samaras, suffering dementia, was going between rooms searching for her husband of 50 years and “a couple of times she found him”.
The 91-year-old quickly declined and Ms Loucas said she begged a paramedic to take Mr Samaras back to hospital.
“I felt like I was battling to make sure he got medical treatment,” she said.
He died at the Northern Hospital on July 21 as his wife, also positive, was being treated at Epworth.
“I know he was old but he wanted to stick around for his wife because she was sick,” she said.
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