Joshua Matchett said he felt something wasn't right when he couldn't reach his father on April 11. He had called half a dozen times and checked the video camera he'd set up in the 92-year-old's long-term care room, but his father was never visible.
Late that afternoon, Matchett, who lives in Brampton, Ont., got a call from his brother telling him their father ? Traven Matchett ? had died in the bathroom of his room at Extendicare Halton Hills in Georgetown, Ont., about 50 kilometres west of Toronto.
Anxious to see his father's final moments, Matchett screened the video footage from his father's room. That's when he realized something was amiss.
From the video, Matchett said, it was clear that his father went to the bathroom at 9:51 a.m. ET.
"What really hurt was ... nobody else had come in until 4:30 p.m. that afternoon," he said.
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In the inspection report that followed, the ministry found that the personal support worker "had documented that they had conducted hourly checks and turned and repositioned [Matchett] when video surveillance showed that staff did not check on the resident."
The report stated that according to Matchett's file, he'd eaten "76 per cent" of his lunch and his full snack despite the fact that he never exited the bathroom after 9:51 a.m.
"The resident was found unresponsive in the bathroom six hours later without staff having seen or attended to the resident," the report said.
"They quite obviously neglected my father," said Matchett.
"The investigator's report says the staff members said my father ate lunch at 11:56 in the morning and 'He was happy and cheerful' while he did. And that stuck to me because you can't be happy and cheerful if you're not breathing."
