Pembroke, Ont. woman, 99, on years-long waitlist for long-term care
Norma Mullen is in the Pembroke Regional Hospital after falling and breaking her hip at the beginning of August.
When she is ready to leave the hospital, the 99-year-old will be in need of long-term care.
In the meantime, her daughter Noreen Carisse has moved from Ottawa into her mother's house in Pembroke to be her caregiver.
"It's just necessary, especially since her age of 99," Carisse tells CTV News. "She has difficulty hearing."
Carisse has put her mother on a waitlist at Miramichi Lodge long term care home in Pembroke, but has been told the wait could be years.
"It's hard to find that consistent kind of help that someone mom's age would require in your home," says Carisse. "And I'd gladly do it, but it could be a burnout situation for me as well."
"There's no one to look after me except my daughter," says Mullen, who ironically lives just across the street from the hospital and healthcare providers.
"Look at my age and the condition I'm in. This is ridiculous."
The family say they were told the waitlist at Miramichi is 300 to 400 people long. The long-term care home was unable to provide comment to CTV News at the time of publishing, but list online a capacity for 166 residents.
"It's depressing at times to think of the future and what it could hold," says Carisse. "Unless I'm willing to move my entire life here and look after mom."
Carisse is currently living in her mother's home by herself. She says her kids and husband occasionally make the trip from Ottawa to Pembroke to support her. But she expects her mother to return home next month, where Carisse will take on the role as full-time primary caregiver.
She's now scrambling to find someone to come into the home and care for her mother.
"I've sort of pushed [the search for a long term care home] to the side and realized that it's up to me to find the people that I need to look after my mom."
For Mullen, she believes she may not live to see space in a home become available.
"Well, there's no room anyway for me anywhere else," says the 99-year-old. "Why not go?"
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Manitoba government tables bill to end ban on homegrown recreational cannabis
Manitoba is planning to lift its ban on the home growing of recreational cannabis.
All Alberta wildfires to date in 2024 believed to be human-caused: province
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.