The B.C. senior who was left unattended for days at his Okanagan care home isn’t the only one to suffer at the facility – CTV News has learned his wife spent almost a week there with an undiagnosed femur fracture as well.
Alfredo Bonaldi stopped showing up for meals last week at the Summerland Seniors Village, an assisted-living residence, but staff failed to check up on him.
By the time his family found him on Sunday, he was suffering from kidney failure and an infection.
Just months earlier, in August, his wife Maria Louisa Bonaldi fell to the floor while being bathed and broke her femur. Days went by, but she wasn’t taken to hospital.
“She started to become ill, like vomiting, not eating. Some of the nurses became concerned,” daughter Liana Bonaldi said. “They said she was in pain, they started giving her painkillers.”
The family said it was only after they intervened that she was taken to hospital for an X-ray. A week later, she died.
“We’re dealing with one death and potentially a second,” Bonaldi said. “It’s devastating.”
Retirement Concepts, which runs Summerland Seniors Village, told CTV News it took the appropriate steps after the injury and followed doctor’s orders.
Still, the issues at the facility are being reviewed by the Ministry of Health and the local health authority.
“It needs to be looked into and we have already begun that work. It’s very important that we do,” Minister Margaret McDiarmid said.
Alfredo Bonaldi was taken to Penticton Regional Hospital for treatment on Sunday but remains close to death.
His daughters told CTV News they hope other families don’t have to go through what they have.
“If they’ve got [loved ones] in there thinking that they are being well looked after and protected, we know that they’re not,” daughter Edi Inglis said.
It’s still unclear what initially left their father incapacitated in his room, but he is also suffering from the effects of salmonella poisoning.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Kent Molgat
