A woman has slammed her mother’s aged care provider, saying the elderly woman was not allowed to die with dignity due to the level of care.
Steph Fitzgerald installed a camera in her mum Fran Nilsson’s room at Ozcare Hervey Bay in Queensland after she reported staff being “rude to her”.
“We had a camera put in her room because … she’d actually mentioned to me a few times that a couple of the staff had been calling her names and saying rude things to her and I just kept saying, ‘oh mum, they don’t do that, you know, stop talking like that’,” Mrs Fitzgerald told A Current Affair.
But Ms Fitzgerald says she was shocked by what she saw.
“They didn’t show her the respect and the dignity that she deserved. She was 82 years of age when she died and just this last 12 months would have had to have been her worst year in her whole life,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.
The camera caught one worker calling Ms Nilsson a “b****” while bathing her.
One of the more shocking events occurred in the early hours of August 2022, when the elderly woman tried to get up from her bed using her chest of drawers, accidentally pulling the unit on top of her.
She’s caught on camera calling out to her late husband for help.
“Peter, Peter, I’ve near killed myself here,” she can be heard saying on camera.
She begs for help for 25 minutes before a worker pulls it off her in the dark, scolding her over the incident.
Ms Fitzgerald says she watched it unfold over the camera from home.
“I rang Ozcare and said could they check my mum out because no obs (observations) were done and the obs were done about two and a half hours later,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.
Ms Nilsson died on Anzac Day this year. Her daughter says the poor level of care her mother received has taken a toll on her family.
“It has just torn the guts out of both of us … We’ve still got a long way to go to get through it. Every day is a challenge,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“If it wouldn’t have been for the camera, I wouldn’t have found out the way she was being treated,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.
In the days before Ms Nilsson’s death, another resident was caught on the camera wandering into her room.
The elderly resident was seen touching the dying woman’s face and telling her to close her mouth.
“It should never have happened. My mum was dying and another resident is in there doing this to my mum,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.
She has reported her complaints about the facility to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Ozcare says it has worked with “thousands of Queenslanders over nearly 30 years”.
“Ozcare is committed to ensuring our Hervey Bay facility provides the best care possible,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We continue to work closely with clients and families at all times to resolve any concerns.”