The dumb fucks responsible for this
C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y :
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Probe launched after hospital separates dying woman, husband
Last Updated Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:53:32 EST
CBC News
B.C. health officials are investigating after a woman died alone two days after being forcibly separated from her husband of 70 years, despite the family's pleas that she be allowed to spend her remaining time with him.
Fanny Albo, 91, and her husband Al had both been in the acute care unit of Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail, a city in southeastern B.C. about nine kilometres north of the border with the United States.
On Feb. 17, despite her family's wishes, hospital staff moved Albo more than 50 kilometres away to a long-term care facility in Grand Forks.
Albo, who was from the town of Rossland, died alone only 48 hours later.
Her son, Jim Albo, told CBC News Tuesday night that it was obvious that his ailing mother did not have long to live.
He said he repeatedly asked health authorities to let her spend her final days near her 97-year-old husband, but the requests fell on deaf ears.
"There was no compassion from them whatsoever. They were playing a numbers game, and that's the way it was," he said.
The provincial health minister has ordered an investigation to find out why the Albos were not allowed to spend their last days together.
'My poor dad never had time to really even hold my mother's hand'
His parents were not even allowed to say their goodbyes properly, he said.
"They brought her in on the gurney. They said, 'Say goodbye to your wife.'
"My poor dad never had time to really even hold my mother's hand or to cuddle with her or not even a private moment together, and they turned around and wheeled her out the door. And my poor father just absolutely broke down."
Albo said his father had yet to receive any apology from those responsible for taking his wife away.
Health authority defends relocation policy
Murray Ramsden, who heads the region's health authority, said the woman's transfer was ordered under a provincial health ministry rule.
The policy states that a person who needs long-term residential care will be moved to the first available bed, even if it is not at the preferred facility.
"However, saying that, there always has to be a clinical judgment in these cases, and we have to be very sensitive to the individual circumstances," said Ramsden, who is chief executive officer for the Interior Health Authority.