Unexpected bill from seniors facility adds stress for grieving Edmonton area family | 24CA News

The household of an Edmonton-area senior is devastated after being hit with an surprising invoice within the wake of their mom’s demise. The household is sharing their story in hopes others gained’t discover themselves in the identical scenario.

It was a name on Remembrance Day Connie Brooks will all the time bear in mind.

“It was the administrator who phoned and said to my older sister, ‘Your mom flooded the room, she left the window open, the pipes froze. It’s all her fault, she’s going to have to pay for it,’” stated Connie Brooks, the daughter of 92-year-old Elsie Fuhr.

Brooks stated the decision got here in round midday, and her mother needed to depart West Country Hearth lodge by 4 p.m., with administration saying there have been no different lodging.

Fuhr ended up staying with certainly one of her daughters.

‘She had a fall someday and we ended up taking her to the hospital, and whereas she was on the hospital she began to have a collection of coronary heart assaults and handed away the subsequent morning,” Brooks stated.

The household was later left with a roughly $14,000 invoice for the repairs to the room.

In a press release to Global News, West Country Hearth pointed to its housing lease settlement signed upon admission, saying partly: “The Resident/s hereby agree to forthwith on demand reimburse West Country Heath for any damage to or the destruction of any of West Country Hearth property due to negligence or incompetency by the Resident or their family members” and that “The Resident/s are responsible for damage to plumbing by freezing, or to floors or walls by rain, if windows are left open.”

“My insurance covered the contents, but they wouldn’t cover the pipes freezing and the repairs of that because the building is already insured and they are not going to sell insurance for something already insured by another company,” Brooks stated.

Ruth Adria with the Elder Advocates of Alberta Society stated Fuhr and her household could not have understood or been conscious of the injury coverage.

“People who move into lodges are frail, they’re dependent, in some instances perhaps there’s a bit of dementia,” Ruth Adria stated.

Brooks hopes sharing her story will carry consciousness to others dealing with an identical scenario.

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