WE MAY never know how many patients in nursing homes died not from the coronavirus but from neglect. The case of one nursing home in Montreal is illustrative of what happens when a worldwide panic is set off and the staff in a nursing home flees, leaving the bedridden to fend for themselves. The New York Times reported last week:

The deaths in Canada were discovered late last week at Résidence Herron, a private home for seniors in Montreal, after the local health authority, alarmed by staff shortages and the spread of coronavirus at the home, took control of the residence.

They found dehydrated residents lying listless in bed, unfed for days, with excrement seeping out of their diapers.

“I’d never seen anything like it in my 32-year nursing career,” said Loredana Mule, a nurse on the team. “It was horrific — there wasn’t enough food to feed people, the stench could’ve killed a horse.”

After she left the home, she said, she collapsed in her car and wept.

A skeleton staff of two nurses had been left to care for a private residence with nearly 150 beds, she said. The remaining staff had fled amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, leaving patients, some paralyzed or with other chronic illnesses, to fend for themselves.

In nursing homes throughout North America and Europe, residents have been confined to their rooms and prevented from seeing the family members who might otherwise supervise their care. In some places, one would not, definitely not, want to be incarcerated with the staff. At a nursing home in New Jersey, where 17 people died, the staff and conditions had gotten very negative ratings before the pandemic.

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