WINNIPEG — The head of Winnipeg’s main Jewish retirement home says the death of one of its residents from hypothermia is a “tragedy,” but there’s nothing that reasonably could have been done to prevent it.
Barry Collen, 74, froze to death Jan. 2 at the Sharon Home branch in the city’s north end after being outside for 31/2 hours in -20 Celsius weather. The developmentally challenged man had gone for a cigarette in the building’s courtyard, where his body was found at around 4:30 a.m.
He had apparently fallen and banged his head, and was found lying in a pool of blood.
Sandra Delorme, the Sharon Home’s president and CEO, said Collen’s mental capacity “was much more than a five-year-old,” contrary to what his sister-in-law, Ann Collen, told The CJN and Winnipeg Free Press.
“Barry bought himself a bus pass, and he would often go to the Garden City Mall,” Delorme said. “He’d also go downtown to Eaton Place occasionally. He was quite capable of being mobile. If it were true that he had the mental capacity of a five-year-old, he wouldn’t have been going downtown on his own. I wouldn’t let a five-year-old go downtown by themselves. The doctors and nurses would have had a different care plan for him.”
When asked to give her assessment of what Collen’s mental capacity was, Delorme answered, “I can’t tell you what his age was in terms of mental capacity. He’d done this [taking buses on his own] all of his life, and we saw no valid reason for him not to continue. We don’t want people to feel [the Sharon Home] is a jail.”
According to Delorme, as of April 2004, a month before Collen became a resident at the home, “the smoking room in the building was shut down,” and thus was not available to any of the four residents who smoked, including Collen, who became a resident a month later.
“It is not the case that Barry was banned from the smoking room as Ann Collen has claimed, as the room was shut down altogether,” Delorme said.
She described the smoking room on the second floor as “having space for two people that was not properly vented and [as of April 2004] it didn’t meet the requirements of the WRHA [Winnipeg Regional Health Authority].
“After the smoking room was shut down, we stopped taking residents who smoked. The [Sharon Home] board grandfathered the residents [including Collen] who smoked. We permitted these residents and staff to smoke in the interior courtyard,” Delorme said.
She noted that currently there are only two retirement residences in the city that allow smoking.
When asked whether the WRHA was advised of what the Sharon Home was doing to accommodate smokers by having them use the courtyard, Delorme responded, “I don’t know. I can’t answer that. It was close to four years ago.”
Delorme said that the “inner courtyard [where Collen went to smoke] is safe and secure and surrounded by buildings.”
She added: “In order to get into the courtyard, there is a key pad and you enter a code and open the door. To get out of the courtyard, you go to the door and just push a red button and you can open the door.”
She said that Collen “had been doing this for four years without any problem, and there was no reason to suspect that there would be any problem with his continuing to do so.”
According to Delorme, “the courtyard is lit up at night. There are lights in there. There’s a seating area, benches and chairs.”
When asked how often staff at the nursing home do bed checks at night, Delorme answered, “We do rounds hourly throughout the night.”
She added that staff would not be concerned if Collen was not in his room, since he “was a resident who roamed around and could be anywhere in the building. He liked to go out [of his room] frequently.”
The WRHA is continuing its investigation into Collen’s death.
He suffered from Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, which makes it difficult to feel numbness or cold.
It is not known why Collen couldn’t get back into the building from the courtyard, although it appears he fell and banged his head.