Kept from dying father's bedside, Montreal family calls hospital visiting rules 'inhumane'

A Montreal family wants COVID-19 restrictions on hospital visits to be loosened, saying they robbed them of precious time with their father and stopped them from accompanying him during his final day.

"My father was left alone in a room, isolated. We begged to see him," said Cristina Boccardi, referring to the day her father died.

"This is inhumane…This shouldn't happen."

Mario Boccardi, 79, had been dealing with Parkinson's disease for nearly 20 years before being diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer last October.

On New Year's Eve, he was transferred from his rehabilitation centre to Santa-Cabrini Hospital in Montreal's east end.

He never returned home or to his rehab centre.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, the Quebec government has limited visitors' access to hospitals in order to prevent staff and patients from getting infected with the coronavirus.

Given the growing spread of the Omicron variant, several hospitals in Montreal decided to cut back on visits last month.

The regional health board responsible for the city's east end suspended visits as of Dec. 28 — with very few exceptions. Those new rules took effect three days before the 79-year-old was admitted to hospital.

One of the exceptions is for patients who are in palliative care, which Boccardi was not.

On New Year's Day, the day before he died, Boccardi's wife was able to spend an evening by his side, thanks to a hospital staffer who agreed to bend the rules, their daughter said.

But on Jan. 2, the day he died, there was no such leniency.

He spent most of the day alone, she said, with the family receiving a call from the hospital that evening to tell them he was running out of time.

It is only at that point that they were allowed to see him. 

By then, he was unresponsive, cold and "bleeding from his mouth," his daughter said.

"My father was my hero and I know, for the government, he was just another statistic," she said.

"You don't need to die in this way, not in this country. People should be closing their eyes with their loved ones."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the regional health board, the CIUSSS-de l'Est-de-L'Île-de-Montréal said it could not comment on a specific case, adding that it is following government directives when it comes to hospital visits.

The spokesperson did acknowledge that the rules can be modified, in some cases, for "humanitarian reasons."

Patient went full day without medication, family says

Not being able to see their father was difficult enough.

According to Boccardi's daughter, and her brother Giovanni, the situation was made worse by the fact he was not receiving proper care during his stay in hospital.

With visits not allowed, their father went 23 hours without taking his medication for Parkinson's, they say.

"He didn't deserve this," said Giovanni, adding that his family will continue speaking out about their father's ordeal until the rules on visits are modified.

"I hope this doesn't happen to other people. Stand up for your rights, and that's the most important thing."

CBC News sent a separate request for comment to the health board regarding the family's concern about the level of care Boccardi received before his passing. It has not yet been returned.