A paid caregiver, who had a disabled client die of malnutrition in her B.C. home, completed her second day of testimony at a coroner’s inquest into the woman’s death Wednesday.
Astrid Dahl testified that Florence Girard, who had Down Syndrome and lived in Dahl’s home for the final eight years of her life, had stopped eating solid food in the weeks and months prior to succumbing to starvation.
Dahl said each day in the final weeks of Girard’s life, she fed her three portions of Ensure, a liquid nutrition supplement.
Family outraged
Outside the coroner’s court in Burnaby, Girard’s sister held up a bottle of Ensure and questioned the logic of assuming it would be sufficient on its own to sustain a human life.
“I don’t understand how somebody that’s supposed to be in a position of caring for another vulnerable human being can think that that’s okay as a meal replacement,” Bursey said. “I think it’s great as an additive, but not as an entire meal three times a day.”
Girard had not had any medical care for four years prior to her death, and weighed just 55 pounds by the end of her life.
Dahl said although she was paid to care for Girard in her home, she loved her and considered her to be family.
She testified that even as it became obvious that Girard was dying, she did not make any attempt to get her medical attention because she was afraid Girard would wind up dying alone in a hospice rather than surrounded by loved ones.
She did not contact Girard’s family prior to her passing.
At a coroner’s inquest, members of the five-person jury are allowed to question witnesses.
“Why would you not involve her family as people who love her?” one of the jurors asked Dahl.
She sat pensively for a moment before answering.
“Yeah, I should have. I don’t know why I didn’t. I was just so zoomed in on Flo that I didn’t zoom out and see the bigger picture,” Dahl said. ”I can’t apologize enough for that.”
‘I’ll never forgive her’
Bursey said Dahl had not allowed her to speak with her sister in many months prior to Girard’s death, and had been restricting family contact for years.
“She took Florence away from me four years before she died,” Bursey said. “I’ll never forgive her, ever. If she ever apologized to me, it would not be accepted.”
After Girard’s death, Dahl was criminally charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life.
At trial she was convicted and handed a 12-month conditional sentence to be served in the community.
The Crown appealed on the grounds the sentence was too lenient and the B.C. Court of Appeal agreed.
The sentence was raised to 15-months in jail – but because Dahl was considered to have served her community sentence by the time the appeal process was complete she managed to avoid spending any time behind bars.
Caregiver says no oversight provided
As a paid caregiver, Dahl was contracted by Kinsight Community Society, an agency contracted by Community Living BC to oversee home-share agreements like the one that saw Girard and other disabled clients placed in Dahl’s home.
Dahl testified the agency provided little to no oversight or follow up.
Kinsight staff had been in the home several times in the summer and fall of 2018, including a visit in September just one month prior to Girard’s death.
But they were there to check in on another client and apparently did not make a specific effort to check on Girard despite her being in the bedroom right next door to the other client.
As the inquest continues Thursday, staff from Kinsight will take the stand and give their version of the events that led to Girard’s death.
Based on evidence already presented, some of their testimony may conflict with testimony provided by Dahl over the previous two days.
A coroner’s inquest is intended to identify ways to prevent similar deaths from taking place in the future.
The jury can make recommendations but they are not supposed to lay fault or blame on any person or organization.
