Coronavirus Australia: ‘I don’t know if my mother is alive or dead’, says Christine Golding

After repeated calls to a Melbourne nursing home, Christine Golding did not even know if her mother was alive.

Christine Golding on Friday. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Christine Golding had not spoken to her mother, Efraxia, for four days. On Friday afternoon, after repeated calls to the Melbourne nursing home where she lives, Ms Golding did not even know if ­Efraxia was alive.

The nursing home where Ms Golding’s mother lives, St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in the northern Melbourne suburb of Fawkner, is at the epicentre of a major coronavirus outbreak.

Ms Golding last spoke to her mother on Monday. The next day a nurse told her that Efraxia had returned a negative test for the virus. Since then, infections have grown rapidly in the home and Ms Golding has been unable to obtain any information on her mother’s health and wellbeing.

On Wednesday morning, staff employed by the federal government took over St Basil’s, replacing regular staff, some of whom had known Efraxia since she and her husband, who died in 2014, moved into the home.

Ms Golding said none of the new staff had been able to tell her or other family members of residents anything about their loved one’s conditions, let alone enable her to speak to her mother.

Efraxia uses a wheelchair and has cognitive and mobility limitations as a result of hydrocephalus.

“No one has been able to tell me whether she is alive or dead, whether she has coronavirus or not,” Ms Golding said on Friday afternoon.

“I have left three messages today. At one stage I got onto an administrative agency worker who answer my call by asking me ‘what’s your issue?’

“I blasted back: ‘I want to speak to the person in charge of the facility. What is their name? I want to find out if my mother is alive or dead’. That was two hours ago, and no one has called me back.”

The first two cases of coronavirus at St Basil’s were revealed by Victoria’s Health Department on Wednesday July 15. By last Monday the cluster had risen to 13 cases. On Friday, there were 73 cases.

This puts St Basil’s at the top of a list of 40 aged care facilities linked to COVID-19 outbreaks in the state.

At least four of 22 coronavirus deaths linked to aged care facilities in Victoria this month have been St Basil’s residents.

Ms Golding said she was terrified of a repeat of the Newmarch House tragedy in Sydney’s west, where 17 residents died from coronavirus.

“I would like to know why residents who are COVID positive have not been moved to hospital to give them the best chance of surviving,” Ms Golding said. “I want to know why the federal government has failed to communicate with family members regarding their intended strategy. If she is negative, I want to bring her home as soon as possible and care for her here. If she’s positive, she must be sent to hospital.”