Coronavirus Australia: ‘All hell broke loose’ one of Melbourne’s worst-hit aged care homes

The daughter of an aged care resident at one of Melbourne’s worst hit homes said “all hell broke loose” inside the facility.

The daughter of an aged care resident at one of Melbourne‘s worst hit homes said “all hell broke loose” inside the facility.

Kathy Atzarakis Bourinaris’s mum was living at St Basil’s home in Fawkner which has been hit with at least 88 cases of COVID-19.

The home has been deemed so unsafe that grieving families cannot collect belongings and residents have been moved to hospital en-masse.

Ms Bourinaris said her mother is now fighting for her life in hospital after contracting the coronavirus at the home.

She said her mother was moved into the home because she had Parkinson‘s, but she was only there for nine days before “all hell broke loose”.

“I still can‘t imagine what she has gone through,” she told the Today show this morning. ”I just don’t even want to think about it sometimes.”

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The daughter of an aged care resident at one of Melbourne‘s worst hit homes said “all hell broke loose” inside the facility. Source: Channel 9

She was ready to take her mum out of the facility, but then she found out her mum had tested positive.

She said her family tried to find out what was happening every day, but the home couldn‘t tell her what was happening.

Now her mother is in hospital, fighting for her life.

“It‘s been an absolute week from hell. Just devastating for our whole family,” Ms Bourinaris said.

“You know, myself, my family, my brothers, their families, my poor father. It‘s unimaginable.

“We still think, is this really happening? And then I think of my mother. I think she‘s in so much pain. How is she going through this all by herself? All alone. She would’ve been petrified. Scared. Alone. Just so unfair. So unjust.

“She should not be there right now. She should not be there right now. She should be home with us, if anything, just safe at home, or we thought safe at St Basil‘s, but far from it.”

Victoria recorded 384 new coronavirus cases and six new deaths in the past 24 hours, after a record number of cases was announced on Monday.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck told ABC Radio Melbourne last night he hopes to have an investigation into the coronavirus outbreak at St Basil’s aged care home up and running as soon as possible.

“There‘s a lot of concern, fear and passion in the community about it,” Senator Colbeck said.

“I was on a Zoom meeting with (St Basil’s) families on Sunday night and there quite a few questions and those people deserve to have their questions answered.”

The details of how the inquiry will be run are not yet determined, but Sen Colbeck said his department was working to get the investigation running in the near future.