Fuming. Covid in my Nan's care home

[Whattodowhattodooo]

My mum has just had a letter from my 84 year old nans care home to say they have had 2 residents test positive. They have been on lockdown for the past 5 weeks so no visitors could have taken it in and there is no suggestion in the letter that any care workers have tested positive. "Solely residents affected". This begs the question "Where did it come from?" The only situation we can think of is that the residents have come from hospital. If this is is the case WHY weren't they tested prior to being released?? We know that you can be asymptomatic up to 14 days so surely they would have tested positive before symptoms showed?? I may be being completely unreasonable in my understanding of testing/transmission but my nan is now in the firing line. I am so angry and upset 😭

Other residents, visitors, carers and/or staff might have been asymptomatic, well before lockdown. There is no point blaming anyone, they have to do their best to manage the current situation.

Is your daughter on oral steroids, a biologic or has a history of multiple admission/ITU for her asthma @Whattodowhattodooo ?

If not she doesn't need to shield.

Shes been blue lighted to hospital twice due to oxygen levels being too low and was given steroids although she doesn't have to take a preventer just the reliever as and when required. She never has a cold... Always goes straight to her chest. My mum has hyperthyroidism, diabetes and hypertension xx

You are bu to be fuming but not unreasonable to be worried
I've seen very frail patients survive and stronger ones that, I expected to be OK, die
We've had patients who very very frail test positive and have no symptoms
I've heard scientists say that we are all going to have to get it/come in contact with it at some point. It's scary but all we can do is to try to stay safe and healthy

My grandads care home have a suspected outbreak of it. There was 4 now 3 that have symptoms. They won't test. My grandad died this weekend. Still don't know and probably never will if it was definitely covid. He was a very poorly frail man who had end stage dementia too.

Ah OP. You’re scared and powerless. It’s no wonder you’re feeling angry. It’s no one’s fault, other than some dodgy Far Eastern meat market, but I totally understand your emotion.
I hope she gets through ok.

@Harleyisme

So sorry for your loss 😢 sending hugs ❤️

As far as I’m aware it hasn’t yet arrived in my dad’s care home, but it’s surely only a matter of time. He’s in late stage dementia though and declining fast. It’s his birthday on Sunday and I wouldn’t be that surprised if he doesn’t make it. My mum just wants to see him once more.

Is worrying isn't it?

I would have thought that as well as no visitors, keeping as many residents in their rooms as much as possible would also be happening, plus maybe 2 sittings for mealtimes, or again, as many as possible eating in their rooms?

Probably a lot easier said than done though-especially if there are staff shortages!

I can understand your worry. My nanna has just had a confirmed case of the corona virus, she has been allowed back home but I can’t understand why they don’t retest before you leave hospital. She is 92 and is unable to be left alone as she’s really weak, meaning family members need to support her. My other Nanna was in a care home up until last year and I said how much of a worry it would have been. Sending you lots of love.

I'm really sorry that's horrible

I commented on a post similar to this as a family member has been discharged from a Covid ward to a care home - the Covid test results took two days to come back as negative, but she could have caught it all the time she was waiting for the test results. Having results take that long to come back really isn't helpful, so she may well have caught it after being swabbed and taken it with her to the care home. I'm assuming this situation isn't rare.

I feel so sorry for you and I think the lack of any sort of forward planning for care homes is infuriating.I've a relative in their mid 50's in a nursing home and she has ms with related confusion and brain damage. We haven't got into the home in 6 weeks now and feel ok about that but worry about her greatly. We're anxious about whether we'll be told if or when covid 19 is in the home. We visited daily beforehand and there were occasional concern about toileting, hygiene etc so we've no idea how she is. She now lacks the capacity to Skype or have more than a brief telephone conversation with us.
I've turned some of my frustration towards trying hold people to account, questioning the processes etc. Locally there has been suggestions that residents who test negative should be isolated with carers in hotels.There are solutions if we care enough about our elderly and vulnerable people.

One thing to note is that elderly people don't all get the high temperature that younger symptomatic people get. My own dad was diagnosed with Covid 19 and he didn't have a high temp or a dry cough. My mum is awaiting a test as she has active cancer just before all this started. Again she has no high temperature and she has no cough at all. She does have bad nasal congestion and a sore throat. It seems to present differently to what we were first told back at the beginning. They are 75 and 77 years old. I really think the Cpap machine my dad uses at night saved his life.

Its probably staff. Just because they havent tested positive doesnt mean they havent had it, plus they probably arent going to say if staff have had it as it puts blame on the staff member.

But also tests are not instantaneous. Lets say someone was in hospital for non-covid reasons, they test them on monday, its thursday before the results are back, by which point being in hospital they could have caught it. You would need an instanteous test to be sure, or you just keep everyone in hospital who is there for non covid reasons, using up all the beds.

She doesn't need to shield then. Not saying she should visit your gran, but that might make life easier. Shielding is for those who have had regular overnight admissions and are on preventer inhalers and oral steroids.

Last week my friends dad died. Her mum is in a care home which is in lockdown. Her mum went to the funeral with a carer and the homes manager. I didn't think that would be ok.
I'm actually relieved my mum passed away 2 yrs ago in a care home and she isn't living through this.

Thankyou for all your replies and my thoughts are with all of you in a similar situation and thanks for helping me out with some perspective. All we can do now is hope and pray x

OP , i am so sorry , i work in the community in care and it is just heartbreaking to see it running amok in the care homes .It is a massively worrying time for people whose families are the ones being cared for and for those of us doing the care. We just want everyone to be safe .I truly hope they stay safe op .

Have your mum and daughter received targeted letters from the gp/government adding them to the official shielding list? They’re in a more vulnerable general category with those pre-existing conditions but they aren’t the most at risk.

I think as things have developed we’ve all become fixated on things like key worker/vulnerable/shielding and there’s quite a bit of confusion out there in regards to what categories people fall under.

Are all care home staff and patients being tested in the U.K.?
In Ireland 60% of all CV19 deaths have sadly been in care homes and now all staff and patients are being tested and HSE( Irish NHS) staff are being deployed in to care homes.

Tests are great - in theory. However, sadly, they are not 100% accurate, and of course only tell you if you have Coronavirus on the day you take the test. You may get a negative, go to the shops, and catch it, without symptoms. Then you go into your care home, with a negative test, but caught Corona the very next day. It is shit, but you can't possibly test everyone, everyday, so what do you do?

@SeriouslyRetro

My mum has received two letters and 3 text messages! Absolutely shit herself!! Apparently there was an admin error. She spoke to her GP and she is definitely a "shielder".

Daughter hasn't, but she suffers with her chest so badly I don't want to put her at unnecessary risk 🙁

@Inniu, no its very very difficult to get care home residents tested, and equally hard to get our staff tested.

We are being pushed by the NHS to take patients needing discharge, even when they have not been tested. At present my organisation is refusing to accept anyone without a negative test - but as others say, this doesn't necessarily mean they won't go on to develop it.

Working in care homes is currently extremely difficult, we have a home with nearly half the staff off sick, isolating or vulnerable /shielding already - and so far 2 of my colleagues have died from it.

We know how incredibly hard the relatives are finding it not being able to visit and we hate that we're having to enforce this. Even more so we hate that we don't have sufficient PPE to enable relatives to come and sit with a dying relative.

So... I've just had an update from someone on FB (who is an old school friend) to say that (despite the family being informed that there are 2 cases in my Nan's care home) that it is infact "very very bad" and that it's "rife" in the home. When she was pulled up on her commentary and informed that the care home have not stipulated its in such a bad state all she replied with was "terrible". Seriously?!!! She is refusing to name her source and we are getting nothing other from the home than what has officially been said. Why do people feel the need to comment? I'm so upset 😭

Yes I have an elderly relative in a care home. Staff moved in 5 weeks ago and they locked down. A resident was in hospital for something not Covid related and returned to the home. A week later he had symptoms and tested positive. Obviously it came from the hospital.