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A frame from a video shot by Chantal Contant
allegedly showing her father, Leandre, 78, being abused by staff is
shown at a news conference in Montreal Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006. (CP
/ Ryan Remiorz)
Image taken from hidden video that was placed
in the nursing home.
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Chantal Contant, whose father Leandre is seen
in the video, pauses during a news conference in Montreal on
Thursday. (CP / Ryan Remiorz)
Lawyer Jean-Pierre Menard gestures while
speaking to media during a press conference on Thursday.
|
Hidden camera used in elder abuse
lawsuit
Updated Thu.
Oct. 12 2006 2:22 PM ET
CTV.ca
News Staff
The family of an elderly
Alzheimer's patient is suing a nursing home near Montreal after a
hidden camera allegedly revealed the patient being mistreated by
staff.
The images were captured by
Chantal Contant, whose 78-year-old father Leandre was a patient at the
CLSC-CHSLD Meilleur long-term care facility in L'Assomption, Que.
Video footage from the hidden
camera allegedly reveals poor hygiene at the home and an orderly
dragging a frail Contant on the floor after a fall in Dec. 2005.
The orderly has since been fired
and is facing possible criminal charges.
CTV's
Stephane Giroux, reporting from Montreal, said the family had hired
high-profile Montreal lawyer Jean-Pierre Menard and was suing the
long-term care facility for $80,000.
"Chantal felt that there was
something wrong, so she installed a hidden camera inside his room and
she caught an orderly dragging her father on the floor in a very rough
manner," Giroux told CTV News Thursday.
Giroux said after the family
complained about the treatment, the orderly was promptly fired and is
still under investigation for "possible criminal" actions.
However, Giroux continued, the
problems did not end there.
"Mrs. Contant said the staff
became extremely cold and uncooperative the second she denounced the
woman who abused her father," said Giroux.
Contant
then reinstalled the camera in her father's bedroom, only to find he
was still being neglected and mistreated.
Footage revealed staff changing
her father's diaper "without cleaning him up" first and her father not
being fed properly.
"This is an Alzheimer's patient
who cannot complain, who cannot talk, who cannot do anything," Giroux
said.
Alzheimer's disease is a
progressive brain disorder that gradually destroys a person's memory
and ability to learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry
out daily activities.
After several complaints to the
nursing home, Contant decided to hire Menard to take legal action on
behalf of her father.
"The amount is symbolic, but
there's a history of abuse here that they want addressed," Giroux told
CTV News.
"It's one case after another after
another," Menard told reporters Thursday. "At some time, this
has to change. People are fed up with this kind of situation."
CLSC-CHSLD
Meilleur has so far made no comment on the lawsuit, Giroux reported.
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