Coronavirus: Care home death 'hard to process' for family

The family of a woman who died after contracting coronavirus in her care home have said losing her in such circumstances is "hard to process".

Anne Duncan's daughter Linda found out on Wednesday that her mum had died while being cared for in hospital.

She said the pandemic was "so enormous" she felt it was "almost impossible to see my mother's death right now".

She said many people would be deeply traumatised, including those unable to be with loved ones at the end.

"There will be time to grieve, I don't think that's right now", Ms Duncan added.

Ms Duncan, who is a lawyer for the BBC, said she was glad she travelled from London in March to visit her mother.

During this visit, which turned out to be her last, the family had to wear PPE and practice social distancing.

Ms Duncan said it was "comforting" to look back on this time.

The family explained to Anne that due to the pandemic they might not be able to visit her at the Letham Park care home in Edinburgh.

Anne had been "extremely distressed" afterwards that she could not see her family due to the risk of visitors bringing the virus to the home, in keeping with official guidance.

Then on 3 April, they were informed of two confirmed coronavirus cases at the home.

Ms Duncan was told staff started using PPE on 1 April for residents suspected to have Covid-19, and then for all residents two days later.

"Obviously that gave me a real sense of concern because I didn't feel that was appropriate because obviously we didn't know where the source of the outbreak was and it could actually be asymptomatic staff who were spreading it around the home", she said.

Renaissance Care, who own the Letham Park care home, insisted it had strictly followed guidelines.

A spokesman said: "In keeping with official guidance and to protect our vulnerable residents, we severely restricted visitors from 11 March onwards.

"It's important to note that we had no suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 at that point, having prepared extremely carefully for any outbreak.

"We were following Health Protection Scotland guidance to the letter and had ample supplies of PPE. It is also important to note that the use of PPE was not advised in homes with no cases."

Last Thursday, Anne's family received a call to say she had the virus.

On Sunday, she was transferred to Edinburgh's Western General Hospital.

Then Linda heard on Wednesday that her mother had died.

"We got a call from the nurse on duty during the night to let me know that sadly she'd passed away.

"The ending was peaceful and that's all we can hope for."

Ms Duncan said although the odds of her mother's survival were not good, she had felt hopeful.

"I thought there was a tiny, tiny shot", Linda said. Her mother was "from strong stock".

Over her lifetime Anne had recovered from TB, pleurisy, pneumonia, a stroke, a heart attack, breast and womb cancer and two hip operations.

Ms Duncan had hoped "with the right care [her mother] might pull through" once again.