Sask. woman questions hospital visiting ban after husband’s accident

Births and deaths are the main exemptions that allow one healthy family member to be with a loved one in a Saskatchewan hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But one Saskatchewan woman is questioning why compassionate care visits can’t extend to patients like her husband.

Chelsey Mandel rushed to the Regina General Hospital late on May 14 after her husband, Brian, had been in a serious crash with a semi and had been taken there by STARS Air Ambulance.

“The doctor came out and informed me of what was going on. I asked if I could see (Brian) and they said no, I wasn’t allowed to see him at all the entire time he will be in the hospital,” Mandel said.

While her husband was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), Mandel was told he was not at risk of dying so therefore she couldn’t be admitted to visit him under the terms of compassionate care.

Over the weekend, Brian was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and is expected to have a lengthy hospital stay. Chelsey plans to continue pushing for visitation rights and is hoping the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) will update its policy to allow her to see her husband soon.

According to the SHA website, compassionate care visitation may apply to one healthy family member at a time for patients who are receiving end of life care, who are considered by doctors to be at high risk to die, or who are to undergo major surgeries.

“Compassionate care only covers if you’re critically ill, palliative or if you’re just about to go in for major surgery. Because I didn’t fall under that because he wasn’t in any immediate danger of dying, I wasn’t allowed to see him,” Mandel said.

Mandel is well aware of the other exemption on maternal and postpartum hospital wards because the couple was allowed to stay together very recently when they welcomed a new baby.

Children admitted to the hospital are also allowed to have a caregiver with them and parents can visit newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit under strict health screening.

“I live in the same house as my husband. I don’t understand how having a baby warrants critical compassionate care with a support person, but running into a semi trailer and being airlifted to the hospital doesn’t constitute critical compassionate care,” Mandel said.

“They keep telling me he’s agitated and confused. Well, of course he would be. He was in a major motor vehicle accident and now he’s surrounded by strangers,” Mandel said. “Would it not fall under compassionate care to have somebody familiar there in order to bring that comfort?”

While Mandel understands the risk of COVID-19 is real, she is questioning the outright ban on hospital visitors, especially when southern Saskatchewan has had so few positive cases. She believes the province should weigh the mental and emotional cost of keeping families apart when considering the rules.

“Is COVID serious? Yes, I’m not stating in any small terms that it doesn’t have serious consequences. But how much longer are we going to allow this to affect people’s mental health, people’s mental well-being, loved ones (or) people’s families?” Mandel said. “At what cost are we willing to flatten this curve?”

SHA considering options

On Tuesday afternoon, the SHA responded to 980 CJME’s request for comment with a statement empathizing with the plight of families separated from their loved ones but explaining the public health order restricting visitors is in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to patients, staff and visitors.

“We understand that it is difficult for families to have loved ones in hospital or other care areas and not be able to visit, and that is one of the reasons we have engaged a Patient and Family Centred Care expert panel to advise on future recommendations to the COVID-19 visitor policy,” the SHA wrote in an email.

During the regular provincial teleconference, SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said many families and caregivers have reached out with the same concerns and questions about being separated from loved ones for so long.

“We are hearing a lot about the concerns that families have and we are working on a new and revised structure to start opening up (visiting); we don’t have it yet. As we’ve opened up the health-care system, we’d like a little bit of time to see what that has with respect to an impact on our COVID cases. But we are working on it,” Livingstone said.

Livingstone said people can expect to see suggestions to open up all health-care facilities to visitors under a phased-in plan, including hospitals and long-term care homes for seniors — particularly those who are suffering with dementia and seem to be struggling more.

He said nearly everyone can personally relate to the difficulty of being separated and unable to visit loved ones in these situations.

“We all have moms and dads as well across the province in those types of situations and we are working on something; we just haven’t brought it to the table yet with those groups. But we are using patients and family advisers to guide this work,” Livingstone said.

Premier Scott Moe described the separation from family members as one of the most challenging issues individuals and governments are facing during this time.

“I feel for each and every one of those families that has a loved one that they have been unable to see and I commend the SHA for working through some way for us to have the proper precautions in place so that may happen so that family members can see their loved ones,” Moe said.

While empathizing with the struggle, Moe said the restrictions are likely the main reason the province has been able to keep the fatality rate so low by preventing outbreaks in long-term care homes and other health-care facilities.