Daughters want inquest after their dad fell 3 floors from a Windsor retirement home 2 years ago
CBC
About three weeks after moving her father into a Windsor, Ont., retirement home, Joanne Vandereerden didn't expect she'd get a call telling her that the 80-year-old had been rushed to hospital after falling out of his third-storey window.
Now nearly two years later, the family is still looking for answers.
"How did this happen? We put him there to be safe," said Vandereerden, whose dad died the day after the fall.
"This should never have happened. He was in great health. We could have had many more years with him, and now we don't."
Her sister, Susan Dixon, said "never in a million years" did she think this would happen to their father, James Clarke.
"It was devastating," Dixon told CBC News.
The daughters, and their lawyer, are waiting to hear whether an inquest that they requested in September 2022 will be granted.
Investigations done by the Retirement Home Regulatory Authority (RHRA), a committee with the coroner's office and the Windsor Police Service, found the home complied with regulations and there was no criminal negligence.
Even though these investigations came out with some recommendations, the family says they want to see concrete change, and believes a coroner's inquest is the best way to get that. They also plan to file a lawsuit against the retirement home.
"It would answer some questions about what exactly failed in this process that this was allowed to happen," said Colleen Caza, the family's lawyer. She's with the firm Goldstein DeBiase.
The lawyer says an inquest would help give the family closure.
Vandereerden says Clarke had been diagnosed with dementia in December 2021, but he was still in the early stages. In April 2022, Clarke ended up in hospital after some behavioural issues, and a tendency to wander.
About two weeks into his hospital stay, Clarke was moved to a "secure unit" at Lifetimes on Riverside Retirement Residence, which the family says took in people who needed memory care. The family says this was supposed to be temporary until a spot opened in long-term care.
Shortly into Clarke's stay, the family says his care plan was updated to include check-ins every 30 minutes, including overnight.
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