NOUVELLES DES ÉTUDIANT.E.S
Seven weeks in a COVID-19 hot zone by Ryan Hicks
Between finishing his final exams and starting a summer position at a top New York law firm, law student Ryan Hicks answered the Quebec government’s call for help in the province’s long-term care homes, which were overwhelmed by the pandemic’s first wave last spring. The former CBC political correspondent shares his experience on the front lines. When I arrived for my first morning shift on the sec-
Even though my legal training never prepared me to
ond floor, the personal support worker (PSW) I was
provide hands-on elder care, it did teach me how to
assigned to help could see how nervous I was. It did not
advocate by using my voice and by listening. During
matter that I had two masks on. She could see it in my
this crisis, both patients and staff needed an advocate.
eyes. “Just relax, everything’s going to be OK,” she told
The staff shortage made it impossible for staff to give
me as we walked to our unit, where a mix of COVID-19
patients the individual attention they required. As an
positive and negative residents lived.
assistant PSW, I liaised between patients and health
There was no easing me into the job of assistant PSW.
care staff, communicating directly with the latter
The first woman we came upon had advanced dementia
when a patient was in pain or had a question. Staff also
and was screaming while sitting in a diaper that was
needed someone to listen when they recounted the
full for who-knows-how-long. Even though we had to
multitude of ways their employer, the Quebec provin-
serve breakfast to all the residents, we could not leave
cial government, was failing in its obligations to provide
this woman in such a condition. The dire staff shortage
them a safe workplace, adequate personal protective
(10,000 health care workers infected with COVID-19
equipment (PPE) and other infection prevention
or too scared to come to work) forced us to make these
materials.
kinds of decisions every day. Who and what do you
My biggest fear is that we will forget the enormity of
prioritize in the middle of a deadly pandemic when
what has happened to our seniors — the deaths and the
you do not have enough staff?
toll that months in isolation took on those who survived.
I experienced moments I never thought I would live
We share a collective responsibility, especially as members
through in Canada. Consoling family members at the
of the legal community, to push our governments for
bedside of loved ones dying from COVID-19 while they
real action so that our elders live in the dignified, safe,
took their final breaths. Packing the personal belong-
and caring environment they deserve.
ings of dead residents into black garbage bags, labelling them with a Post-it note and placing them in a maintenance closet. Learning how to wrap a dead body with a white plastic sheet before its transfer to the morgue. At times, the backlog at the morgue meant there was nowhere to take the bodies — so dead patients remained in their rooms while the smell got worse and worse.
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