Coronavirus: Spanish Army Finds Care Home Residents 'Dead And Abandoned'

[appalachiablue]

Source: BBC News

Spanish soldiers helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic have found elderly patients in retirement homes abandoned and, in some cases, dead in their beds, the defence ministry has said. Spanish prosecutors said an investigation had been launched. The military has been brought in to help disinfect care homes in Spain, one of Europe's worst hit countries.

Meanwhile, an ice rink in Madrid is to be used as a temporary mortuary for Covid-19 victims, officials said. On Monday Spain recorded its highest daily death toll - 462 - bringing the total to 2,182. Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told the private TV channel Telecinco that the government was "going to be strict and inflexible when dealing with the way older people are treated" in retirement homes.

The army, during certain visits, found some older people completely abandoned, sometimes even dead in their beds," she said. The defence ministry said that staff at some care homes had left after the coronavirus was detected. Health officials have said that in normal circumstances the bodies of deceased residents are put in cold storage until they are collected by the funeral services.

But when the cause of death is suspected to be linked to coronavirus they are left in their beds until they can be retrieved by properly equipped funeral staff. In the capital Madrid, which has seen the highest number of cases and deaths, that could take up to 24 hours, officials said...


Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52014023

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Spain's Minister of Health Salvador Illa stated at a news conference that retirement homes were "an absolute priority for the government" and she added, "We will exercise the most intensive monitoring of these centres."

As the crisis in Madrid worsened, the city's municipal funeral home said it would stop the collection of Covid-19 victims from Tuesday because of a lack of protective equipment. The city is to use a major ice rink, the Palacio de Hielo (Ice Palace), as a temporary mortuary where bodies will be stored until funeral homes can collect them, officials told Spanish media.



- Madrid's main funeral home says its workers lack the equipment to deal with Covid-19 victims.

[pandr32]

1. That is beyond horrible

[appalachiablue]

2. It doesn't get much lower, humans..

[madaboutharry]

3. It is as if we are returning to Medieval times.

[IronLionZion]

6. Shit, I just thought of Monty Python too

not to make light of a tragedy, but there was a "bring out your dead" scene in the holy grail

[dewsgirl]

4. Heartbreaking.💔😭

[totodeinhere]

5. I'm afraid that the same things will be happening in this country in the near future.

n/t

[keithbvadu2]

7. It already has.

Did the Cook and Janitor of a Bankrupt Assisted Living Home Stay to Care for Abandoned Residents?

https://www.truthorfiction.com/did-the-cook-and-janitor-of-a-bankrupt-assisted-living-home-stay-to-care-for-abandoned-residents/

[pecosbob]

8. Sounds like something you would read beginning with Florida Man...

[roamer65]

9. Shades of 1918.

[wnylib]

11. Shades of 1348. Records of the

Plague in Europe are full of stories like this. Spouses abandoned each other. Parents abandoned children. Convents and monasteries, the equivalent of today's nursing homes and hospitals, turned away sick people at their doors and in some cases, abandoned people already in their care.

But the Plague was far more lethal than covid 19. You can understand the Medieval people's fear. Why would anybody abandon these people today?

[dalton99a]

10. Coronavirus patients spotted lying on floor at overrun Madrid hospital

https://nypost.com/2020/03/23/coronavirus-patients-spotted-lying-on-floor-at-overrun-madrid-hospital/

[appalachiablue]

12. That's very sad and scary to see