'They didn't tell me I had it': Resident of Cork nursing home at centre of Covid outbreak

Margot, 87, survived the outbreak in the home where there have been up to 25 deaths, most of which have been from Covid, but she remains very unwell

Ballynoe resident Margot McAuliffe is currently being cared for at Mercy University Hospital Cork.

Nobody is as surprised that Margot McAuliffe has Covid-19 as she is herself.

This is because, bored with listening to fellow Ballynoe Nursing Home residents discussing bowel movements in the day room, she retreated to her own room “years ago”.

Since the pandemic, she has hardly left it.

Yet a Covid-19 test she took on January 29, turned out to be positive.

Margot only found out she had the virus by accident when, she says, a member of staff mentioned it in passing.

Although the company did not comment on how or when she was told, it insists her family were told in a timely manner.

Although the 87-year-old, from Douglas, survived the outbreak in the Upper Glanmire home where there have been up to 25 deaths, most — but not all — of which, have been from Covid, Margot remains very unwell.

Indeed, a few hours after her interview with the Irish Examiner, her condition deteriorated so much she was moved to the Mercy Hospital yesterday.

Her daughter Claire and Ruth and son Greg, who the Irish Examiner have spoken to, supported Margot's decision to do the interview.

“About the Covid thing?” she asked rhetorically down the phone from her bedroom.

“I stay in my room all the time and it is my personal choice.

“So I never thought for one minute I would get it. When I got sick, they didn't tell me I had it, and I was violently sick.

But out of the blue, this person said 'you have Covid' and I thought, 'I couldn't have because I never left the room’. Somebody gave it to me.

On her battle with the virus, she says: “I am not through it, I feel miserable.

“I am feeling dreadful. I am not well and this is because of the Covid.

“I've been suffering very badly because of it. I am just lying in bed the whole time and I feel absolutely dreadful.

“My family can't come in and see me and I can't do window visits.”

Clearly frustrated, she adds: “I am sick of it and I'm also sick of not feeling well.

“I get very very lonely and despondent."

One of the things she misses most is being able to go to a local restaurant — Glanmire’s The Barn Restaurant — with either of her daughters, Claire and Ruth, or her son Greg.

She has her own mixed views about CareChoice, the company which runs Ballynoe.

Margot complained to the home that a nurse had shouted at her last August.

At the time, she says she had been waiting seven hours for antibiotics to be administered to her right eye, which was in agony.

She says she repeatedly had to ask staff to get a nurse to tend to her.

Margot says that when the nurse turned up, she said the nurse shouted at her, threw the medicine at her, and told her to put it on herself.

Ballynoe Nursing Home in Glanmire, Cork.

The company was asked about this, and the apology Margot says she subsequently received, and it replied: “The matter was dealt with properly and appropriately.”

Concerns about the way the company managed the recent Covid-19 outbreak have not only been voiced in this paper but also raised in the Dáil by Socialist Party TD Mick Barry.

Residents at Ballynoe Nursing Home started testing positive for the virus from the middle of January in what the company later described as a “significant” outbreak.

Some of the relatives of those who died are not happy about the way they say CareChoice has handled the situation.

As well as a pensioner dying alone and unattended, other relatives say they were only told their loved one died hours after they actually passed.

The company has confirmed a resident passed away during a family window visit. No staff member was present in the room.

As far as people not being given adequate information about their loved ones in a timely manner, the home has also apologised.

The company insists that staff did their best at all times.

Margot's heart goes out to those who work at the home, where there was a change of key management early last December.

“As far as CareChoice is concerned, all the people I have got to know over the years have left,” she says.

“The people I liked and got on with have all gone. I really don't know anybody here anymore. I appreciate everyone has to better themselves.

“I feel heartbroken.

They all go sooner or later. You can't get too attached to anybody because you have to progress in life. I saw how hard they work.

Since a recent fall at the home, she now rarely leaves her bed, let alone her room.

“I thought I was near the bed, which I wasn't, and I went down like a lead balloon,” she said.

“I said to them there was nothing wrong but the following day my knee hurt.

“I was shaken, you know I was really shaking. I no longer feel safe walking.”

Margot moved to the home about nine years ago after suffering a number of mobility issues.

Before she retired, the mother-of-four, whose husband died in 1986, held a variety of positions, including running M&P O’Sullivan tobacconists on Princes’ St, Cork.

She made a few friends in the first few years of being in the home and earned herself the title of the Queen of Ballynoe.

Most of her friends in the home have long since died, and she has increasingly spent most of her time alone in her room.

“It is my choice to stay in the room,” she said.

“When I used to go to the day room, which is years ago, some of the residents would say things like ‘I didn't open my bowels today’.

“Now, I don't give a shoot if they ever opened their bowels, so I decided I would stay in my room.”

She spends her days listening to the radio and the TV, but admits that she is no fan of RTÉ.

“I don’t mean to sound unpatriotic,” she adds with a chuckle.

On life in Ballynoe, she says: “I’ve no heart for the place. I feel very very much alone.

“I know that this is old age and lack of communication but I feel desperate.

“You have to ring to go to the toilet, you have to ring to get off the toilet, you have to ring if I go out for a cigarette and you have to ring to [get someone to] bring you back in.

“There is no decision you can make for yourself because you're just somebody that is there.

“I wouldn't recommend it on my worst enemy."

Asked if she was sure about making her story public, she said she was happy “if it could improve things”, not just for her but for others.

“I would be glad to,” she said, before apologising for taking up so much time and saying she hoped we would speak again.