AUGUST 25, 2020 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
Class action launched By Tara Murray Nicole McGuinness is angry and furious, but most of all heartbroken, following the death of her mother Kathleen Gribble from COVID-19. Mrs Gribble was a resident at Epping Gardens nursing home where she caught coronavirus. She died 16 days ater being transferred to hospital. Mrs McGuinness and her family have joined a class action lawsuit against Epping Gardens as they seek answers to why their beloved mother and grandmother died. he aged care home has been linked to 210 COVID-19 cases, making it Victoria’s largest aged care outbreak. “I’m angry, I’m furious, heartbroken and I’m so angry,” Mrs McGuinness said. “he owners, the aged care system and the government, someone has to be stepping up and saying ’we’re going to ix this’.” Mrs Gribble, who was 75, irst went to Epping Gardens for transitional and respite care late last year before becoming a permanent resident in April. Mrs McGuinness said her mum was happy. “When the doctors came to us and told us there was no way she could go back to independent living, my mum turned around and said ‘if I can stay at Epping Gardens permanently, I’m happy here and this is where I want to live’. “We hoped putting her in Epping Gardens she would last for many more years and have lots of years with her grandchildren.” When the irst COVID-19 lockdown restrictions hit, the nursing home told families they couldn’t visit for the residents’ safety. Mrs McGuinness abided by this and stayed away for 11 weeks before getting permission to visit for one hour each week. he family managed to get three visits in, the last on Mrs Gribble’s birthday, before visits were again cancelled as COVID-19 cases rose across the state. “It was hard, but we were protecting mum and all the residents and [thought] that if we can stay away, there was no way corona can get in there,” Mrs McGuinness said. Mrs McGuinness said it was about that time that issues started. She said her mum complained that her favourite carers had disappeared. One day, ater having an accident overnight, it took
Families have joined a class action against Epping Gardens. (Damjan Janevski) 212146_04 Inset: Kathleen Gribble (Supplied)
until nearly lunchtime for Mrs Gribble to be showered and the bed changed. Mrs McGuinness said once the irst case of COVID-19 was detected at Epping Gardens things started to snowball. She said families were notiied of the case on a Sunday and just two days later, Mrs Gribble was showing symptoms. “My mum started to get unwell, we could tell on the phone. She … had a sore throat, had a really bad cough, she was very raspy when she spoke, I knew then she had all the classic symptoms.” Mrs McGuinness said she was told her mum was positive on a Sunday but staf couldn’t tell her if her mum was going to hospital. She had no contact for the rest of the day.
Mrs McGuinness said Epping Gardens made contact the next day, saying her mum wasn’t critical and she was doing OK. Twenty minutes later a doctor called to say they needed to discuss her mum’s advanced care plan. Mrs Gribble was taken to hospital the next day. She spent 16 days in hospital and died on August 16. Mrs McGuinness said no one from Epping Gardens or the managing company, Heritage Care, had contacted her since her mother’s death. “We never had a question about the care she received prior to this.” Carbone Lawyers is handling a class action case for the families of residents in Epping Gardens.
Managing partner Tony Carbone said as of last week, 25 families had indicated they would be part of the class action, and that number was growing. “he key to what they are doing is to ensure that there is a change … they say no one should be going through what they’re going through.” Active COVID-19 cases in Hume and Whittlesea have dropped by more than half in the past fortnight according to Department of Health and Human Services data. In Hume, there were 284 active cases on Sunday, down from 590 on August 8. Hume has the third highest number of cases in the state with 1503 cases since the pandemic began. Whittlesea has 252 active cases as of Sunday, down from 557 on August 8.
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