Man with dementia suffers severe burns at Sudbury, Ont., long-term care home

WARNING: This story includes graphic images.

A 75-year-old man with dementia suffered severe burns when his arm ended up on a radiator while he was sleeping at the Sudbury, Ont., long-term care home where he's been living for over a year.

Frank Bruhmuller's wife, Diane Bruhmuller, believes understaffing at the Extendicare York long-term care home was the root cause of his injuries. Extendicare has since apologized to the family.

"I blame the whole system there," Diane Bruhmuller said. "On weekends, you might get two people during the day."

She said those two staff members would need to care for 26 people on her husband's floor. Many, like him, would have dementia or other complicated health issues.

Bruhmuller said she received a call early the morning of Feb. 16 that her husband was rushed to Health Sciences North hospital to treat first-, second- and third-degree burns on his arm.

"The [emergency room] doctor told me that he'd never, ever seen anything like that coming from a long term-care facility," she said.

Bruhmuller said her husband has a small room in the long-term care home and his bed was against a wall with a baseboard heater.

"There's supposed to be a space between that and ... so many times when I've gone there, the bed is right up against the wall," she said.

"I can't even make his bed properly because there's no room to fit the sheets between the bed and the wall."

Bruhmuller believes her husband's arm slipped down the side of the bed and ended up on the baseboard heater while he was sleeping.

"I'm sure he felt it, but because of his dementia, we can only assume that he knew that there was pain, but he didn't know how to react to it."

She said he needed a skin graft to treat the burns and is now recovering in the long-term care home, with regular followup appointments at the hospital.

Wife says the home not 1st choice for her husband

Bruhmuller said the Extendicare York long-term care home was not her first choice for her husband.

She lives in Espanola, about an hour's drive from Sudbury. 

"Espanola was our number one choice, but at the time I was told, just put five choices, put your number one choice as Espanola and see what happens," she said.

"And it just happened that Extendicare York phoned us first that there was a private room available."

Frank was moved to the long-term care home in December 2021 and has been there ever since. They were told he would be able to transfer to the home in Espanola within a year, but that never happened.

Bruhmuller said she visits her husband six days a week and is his primary caregiver when she visits him.

"For the first year that I was there, I gave him his showers, I helped him get dressed, I helped him with meals. I do everything there," she said.

Bruhmuller added that many other residents don't have a spouse or anyone else to advocate for them.

While many of the staff are great, there aren't enough of them, she said. 

Extendicare responds

In an email to CBC News, Extendicare said it was "deeply saddened" by what happened.

"It should not have taken place and we sincerely apologized to the family," the statement said.

"Following the incident, the resident's bed was moved to the correct location in the room. In addition, the home has been audited to ensure all resident beds are in appropriate locations in line with our safety policies."

The statement also said the home will continue to undergo monthly audits to ensure the beds are properly placed so there is no risk a similar incident will happen.

Extendicare added that all the radiators in its homes meet the standards of the Canadian Standards Association.