She will long remember this message from her daughter received on April 19: “Grandma is here”. Medical secretary in intensive care, Céline Fiore Assous then allows herself a few days of vacation abroad, far from her mother who is sick with Alzheimer’s. She thinks of her in a safe place at the Sainte-Anne residence, a nursing home from the DomusVi group in Marseille, where she has lived for more than a year. And discovers, amazed, the photo of her 83-year-old mother, sitting in the stairwell of her old building.
Very quickly, she learns the circumstances of this breakaway which has nothing to do with running away. Considering that the Ehpad “did not take the measure of the gravity of its fault”, Céline Fiore Assous finally filed a complaint against the establishment on April 28.
“We came close to disaster, she continues, my mother had no papers on her, nor money. Luckily my daughter was there to open the door. She found my mother out of breath, tired, very disoriented. “With also a question in suspense: how this elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s could manage to travel the eight kilometers separating the retirement home and her former home, where her granddaughter lives today? On foot, it takes an hour of walking. By public transport, you have to take the bus and metro, a journey of almost 40 minutes.
“Left alone in the street”
“Your grandmother had to run away, the gate of the residence remained open because of a power failure”, hears her granddaughter answer on the phone when she contacts the retirement home. This dispatches a team to come and look for its resident.
“An hour later, the director calls back, explaining to us this time that she had not run away, continues Céline Fiore Assous. It is a hospital service agent who would have deposited her with her personal vehicle. And this, at the request of my mother, who allegedly told her that she had an exit permit. Except that this person did not verify the statements of a resident with Alzheimer’s and left her alone in the street, without worrying about whether someone would take care of her afterwards. »
The director of the Ehpad, Achima Bouchafra, does not deny the facts. She indicates to 20 minutes “of course having taken this incident very seriously” and speaks of “error of assessment”. “New training has been given to all the teams at the Sainte Anne residence, because the well-being and safety of our residents are essential for us, they are at the heart of our missions”, she adds. “We renew our apologies to the family”, also reacts the management.
“We never had any excuse,” says Céline Fiore Assous. For the family, this incident is the last straw in a long chronicle of malfunctions, denounced each time by emails of which we have become aware: medical appointment not honored for lack of transport to the hospital, insufficient clothing, sometimes partial ( no pants or skirt), shoulder splint not put on when prescribed by the doctor… “It’s mistreatment and endangerment”, denounces Céline Fiore Assous, who immediately goes in search of another Ehpad. She then thinks to stop there, in front of the commitment, according to her, made by the management to dismiss this person for serious misconduct.
“It’s not just Laissun adverse event”
But the family learns that no sanction, or conservatory layoff, has been taken against him. She is still in office when Céline Fiore Assous comes to the Ehpad on April 28, the day her mother is transferred to another establishment, and the day also when she decides to file a complaint. “I work in heavy services, when you leave there, everything slips, she confides. I tend to see life on the positive side. On the other hand, there I cannot relativize, it is too serious, impossible to stop there. Such behavior can put others at risk. »
For the DomusVi group, this is an “adverse event”. “A sheet has been sent to the regional health agency to report it”, assured us on the telephone the communication service, which also confides that the person, at the origin of “the error”, was “on fixed-term contract » and that his contract « ended a few days later ». The group also refutes the term “abuse”.
“They treat this as an adverse event, but it is not one, deplores Céline Fiore Assous in response. This kind of event has happened and will happen again, given the dysfunctions of this establishment. I hope that the families concerned will, like me, choose to file a complaint. Things need to be known. »