More than 100 cards to celebrate 99 years, N.B. man makes the best of birthday in hospital

It wasn’t quite the birthday party they had envisioned for their father, but Arthur Perry’s family and friends made the best of his current living situation.

They celebrated his 99th year in the Oromocto Hospital event room, with gifts, cake and more than 100 cards from elementary school students.

He was touched by every single card, says his daughters.

“Some kids made like 15 cards to make sure that they were over 100 so it was really cute and he was just kind of overwhelmed when he seen them all,” said Shelley Poirier.

Perry was active and mobile well into his nineties – passionate about gardening, hunting and fishing. It was a heart attack that landed him in the hospital at first. But his mobility started to deteriorate, and the hospital requested a long-term care assessment for him to determine if he should go to a nursing home.

He waited almost four months for that assessment, which Poirier believes delayed his entrance into a home.

Perry has been in hospital for almost 11 months.

“We have to stop treating seniors like an inconvenience and blaming seniors for blocking up our ERs and so on. You know, we have to start treating them with respect,” Poirier said.

They’re waiting for a placement at Mill Cove Nursing Home, a long-term care facility 10 kilometres from where his wife lives.

He has been offered one other placement, but he felt it was too far away from his family.

Arthur Perry recently celebrated his 99th birthday at the Oromocto Hospital. (Courtesy: Shelley Poirier)

As of February – according to the Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents' Rights – 422 people in N.B. are in Perry’s position, waiting in hospital for a long-term care bed.

There are 949 total people waiting for a nursing home placement.

It was a major issue in child, youth and seniors’ advocate Kelly Lamrock’s report – “What we all want” – released Wednesday.

The report is an extensive look at all aspects of the long-term care system in N.B., from home care, people with disabilities and human resources shortages.

One of his recommendations is for the province to come up with a plan to move seniors from hospital by June.

“It's worrisome to me that we are still saying at times, well, look, here's the number of people who are in hospital beds who don't need to be there. Is there a hard target for doing what it takes to get them out? ‘Well, we're doing the best we can.’ Well, what is the target? Because over two years after we asked the question, several times, we found out actually it's gone up by about 10 per cent,” Lamrock said Wednesday.

Perry’s daughters are hoping decision-makers take note of Lamrock’s report.

They say change may not come in time for their father, but they’re hoping it’s made it in time for them.

“It's like, hey, you've got the power. You can do something about it, do something, or you're going to find yourself in the same situation that we find our dad in,” said Shirley Appleby.

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