The daughter of a 96-year-old woman says her mother is “sweating to death” in her room at a Toronto long-term care home that has had no air conditioning this week.
“This is the second summer this has happened,” Dorothea Beaman told CTV News Toronto. “They’re going to die of heat stroke if something isn’t done.”
Her mother, Teresa, lives on the fourth floor of the Tendercare Living Centre, located at 1020 McNicoll Ave in Scarborough. Her floor, called Moll Berczy Haus, is private and costs $3,500 a month. Although Beaman says the staff on her mother’s floor are excellent, they are subject to the same conditions as Tendercare.
Last year, the Ontario government passed legislation requiring long-term care homes across the province to provide air conditioning in all residential rooms by June. Fifteen percent of homes missed this deadline.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care told CP24 on Tuesday that 90 homes are behind the government’s deadline. Of the homes that are not fully air-conditioned, 57 are non-profit, 25 are non-profit and eight are municipal.
Tendercare told CTV News Toronto that it is “in full compliance” with Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care requirements for whole-home air conditioning.
However, the executive director of the long-term care home told CTV News Toronto that they had a recent technical issue.
“Yesterday there was a temporary technical issue with our central air conditioner that caused part of our air conditioning system to malfunction,” Roxanne Adams said.
“During this time, we have implemented precautionary protocols to ensure resident comfort and well-being, including enhanced temperature monitoring of residents and use of designated cooling areas in operation for all visitors, residents and staff.”
Adams has since said the problem has been fixed.
However, Beeman says her mother’s room and the entire floor still don’t have air conditioning and haven’t since Monday.
“My mom is sweating to death,” she said. “She called me and said, ‘Dorothea, I’m so hot I don’t know what to do. I think I’m going to pass out.”
Amid a global heat wave that hasn’t spared Toronto, Beaman says the temperature in her mother’s room, with windows facing the afternoon sun, has been 27 degrees Celsius this week.
Because the home was originally built as a hotel, Beeman says none of the windows open into her mother’s room.
With her mother’s age and congestive heart failure, she sees cause for concern.
Just yesterday, Bayman said her mother had a fan in her room that had previously been taken away due to pandemic-related regulations.
“I asked my mom, ‘Was there any difference?'” Beaman said. “She said, ‘No, all it does is blow hot air around.’
Early in the pandemic, Tendercare was forced to call on the military for support when nearly half of its residents tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak that resulted in the deaths of more than 80 people.
With files from CP24’s Christina Tenalia and CTV’s Beth McDonnell.
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