Saskatoon family speaks out after grandfather’s freezing death

Up until he died, frozen outside his personal care home, 96-year-old William Hastie was sharp as a tack, according to his granddaughters Ashley Benson-Bonneville and Amber Benson.

They said he would tell them and their kids all about his childhood, and he was active, riding his bicycle into his 80s and delivering newspapers into his 90s.

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About two years ago, Hastie moved to Saskatoon from Regina to be closer to family, moving into the Northern Light Care Home on Lochrie Crescent. Benson-Bonneville said her sister and her mother toured a number of homes before choosing that one because it was closer to them on Saskatoon’s west side and it fit their budget.

Then, early one morning in February, Benson-Bonneville got a call from the home and was told Hastie had died. She said she rushed over and walked inside, overhearing the home staff and police talking about his death. He had been found outside.

“He was in a kneeling position with his forehead frozen against the cement ground,” she said.

Benson-Bonneville said the coroner’s report said Hastie died of a cardiac event from extreme hypothermia.

She said the report she saw said bed checks were done at 4 a.m., and the only staff member working thought her grandfather was in his bed. Staff performed bed checks again at 6 a.m. and saw he was missing, but Benson-Bonneville said 911 wasn’t called until 7 a.m.

“For an hour they had to peel my grandpa off of the ground, and (the worker) had to go next door to get another staff member – because the care homes are side by side there – and that staff member came over and helped put my grandpa on a little piece of rug and drag it back into the care home,” she said.

The body of 96-year-old William Hastie was found outside a Saskatoon care home. (Ashley Benson-Bonneville/submitted)

Benson-Bonneville claimed the care home wanted her family to believe her grandfather had just got out of bed and collapsed at the back door. She said neither she nor her family have heard anything from the owner of the care home – not even an apology.

980 CJME reached out to the owner of Northern Light Care Home but didn’t receive a response by publication time.

Benson-Bonneville said her grandfather should have been taken care of in the home and been able to die comfortably in bed instead of freezing outside.

“Nothing can change what happened to my grandpa, but I really hope, going forward, that there can be changes made so that no other family has to deal with this,” she said.

Benson-Bonneville and Benson were brought to the legislative building to speak out by the Saskatchewan NDP.

This is the second time the NDP has brought forward concerns about this care home and its oversight. The first time was in the fall, regarding a man who died from an infection after his family felt he was neglected.

Keith Jorgenson, the NDP’s critic for seniors, said Hastie’s death was entirely preventable – he wasn’t adequately supervised overnight, door alarms that are required weren’t functioning and, according to reports published online, the home hadn’t been inspected in nearly four years.

“In the end, the government regulates and licenses these facilities, so if you go to a facility that is regulated and licensed, you, as a member of the public, are going to assume that it meets minimum standards. And the public, we can’t possibly know whether or not facilities meet minimum standards when nobody inspects them,” said Jorgenson.

He said it’s the government’s responsibility to inspect care homes. The province is meant to inspect homes every year, and inspections for homes in good standing can be extended to every two years.

Jorgenson also said the government also hasn’t been doing required assessments of patients in personal care homes.

“This is an incredibly important step because that allows us to know that that facility is capable of caring for the people that reside in it,” he explained.

Jorgenson said Hastie’s death could have been avoided if the provincial government had made the care of Saskatchewan’s seniors a priority.

Seniors Minister Lori Carr called what happened to Hastie terrible, but said she didn’t want to judge what happened before the serious injury investigation report is finished.

“I truly do want to get to the bottom of what has happened here and to ensure that it does not happen again moving forward,” said Carr.

The minister said she expects more out of the province’s institutions.

Carr said there wasn’t a four-year gap between inspections at Northern Light Care Home. She said there was an inspection done between the two most recent inspections that are publicly available, but its results hadn’t been published.