A Campbell River woman is worried she may never see her 87-year-old father in person ever again after a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the care facility he calls home.
Joan Novotny’s father, John Boyes, currently resides at the Chartwell Malaspina Care Residence long-term care facility in Nanaimo, where an outbreak of COVID-19 was declared by Island Health just a few days ago.
“To feel helpless that I’m not going to be able to touch him, actually, really disturbs me and upsets me quite a bit,” Novotny told CHEK News.
Although Boyes does not live in the unit where the outbreak has occurred, he does live on the same floor, which has Novotny feeling helpless and wondering whether she will ever see him in person again.
“Talking to him last night he just said this is the circle of life, I don’t want you to fear anything and I don’t want you to worry about anything because this is how it is,” she said.
Since the outbreak was declared, a total of five people at the Chartwell Malaspina Care Residence long-term care facility have tested positive for COVID-19.
The facility has gone into lockdown — restricting visitations and going so far as to switch to disposable plates and cutlery in an effort to stop the spread.
“They are trying their best to stop the spread,” John Boyes told CHEK News by video chat from inside his Nanaimo care home.
Boyes, who is paralyzed and needs around-the-clock care, said he has remained in his room since Sunday and was tested for the virus Wednesday morning.
“If you cannot do anything about it, accept it,” he said.
“He doesn’t like the idea of being locked in a room,” said Novotny. “He doesn’t like the idea of not being able to socialize. He is a very social person, he has always had people in his life and to be isolated and trapped in a room, to him, is like a jail cell.”
Novotny says her father came to Canada from Hungary — a communist country at the time — following the Second World War and that it is really painful knowing he’s spending his time stuck inside his room.
“Coming from a communist country and the Second World War, this is probably the worst way to actually exit this world is to be trapped in a jail cell,” she said. “You are paralyzed, you are already trapped in your body and now you are trapped in your room.”
“It’s just a very unfortunate situation,” she added.
Skye Ryan
Nicholas Pescod
