Good news - The Sudbury Star (January 28) reports that Canadian MPP France Gelinas, who has been advocating for Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, is optimistic she will get the home care she needs.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
The article in full is here.For the last three weeks, Mettinen-Kekalainen has taken her fight with the CCAC public in media interviews -- even going as far as staging a brief hunger strike to protest the fact she has not been receiving home care.
The CCAC has been unable to say much about the case because of privacy and confidentiality laws, but Mettinen- Kekalainen has been vocal about being asked to sign an agreement with the agency not to threaten or harass home-care workers who visit her.
Mettinen-Kekalainen has said the CCAC interpreted her threat to report nurses for not following her doctor's orders to the Ontario College of Nurses as harassing and abusive behaviour.
When the woman refused to sign the agreement, services were withdrawn, she said, although the CCAC has said it does not deny services to anyone who needs them.
Gelinas became involved in Mettinen-Kekalainen's case after Sudbury Star stories about how the woman was living alone, being fed through a gastric tube inserted in her stomach and not being bathed regularly or having her adult diapers changed.
Mettinen-Kekalainen has been termed a palliative patient by her family physician and she is confined to a wheelchair and hospital bed in her home -- often on life-supporting oxygen.
See also Stephen Drake's post here.
