Ryan Hicks: 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 second floor, the personal support worker (PSW) I was assigned to help could see how nervous I was. It did not matter that I had two masks on. She could see it in my eyes. “Just relax, everything’s going to be OK,” she told me as we walked to our unit, where a mix of COVID-19 positive and negative residents lived.

There was no easing me into the job of assistant PSW. The first woman we came upon had advanced dementia and was screaming while sitting in a diaper that was full for who-knows-how-long. Even though we had to serve breakfast to all the residents, we could not leave this woman in such a condition. The dire staff shortage (10,000 health care workers infected with COVID-19 or too scared to come to work) forced us to make these kinds of decisions every day. Who and what do you prioritize in the middle of a deadly pandemic when you do not have enough staff?

I experienced moments I never thought I would live through in Canada. Consoling family members at the bedside of loved ones dying from COVID-19 while they took their final breaths. Packing the personal belongings 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.

Even though my legal training never prepared me to provide hands-on elder care, it did teach me how to advocate by using my voice and by listening. During this crisis, both patients and staff needed an advocate. The staff shortage made it impossible for staff to give patients the individual attention they required. As an assistant PSW, I liaised between patients and health care staff, communicating directly with the latter when a patient was in pain or had a question. Staff also needed someone to listen when they recounted the multitude of ways their employer, the Quebec provincial government, was failing in its obligations to provide them a safe workplace, adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and other infection prevention materials.

My biggest fear is that we will forget the enormity of what has happened to our seniors — the deaths and the toll that months in isolation took on those who survived. We share a collective responsibility, especially as members of the legal community, to push our governments for real action so that our elders live in the dignified, safe, and caring environment they deserve.