A senior who allowed his ailing spouse to languish in appalling conditions for weeks now faces jail time.
On October 13, 2020, Paul-Henri Landry dialed the emergency number 911: he could no longer look after his wife and had to send her an ambulance.
When they arrived, first responders saw the horror. Marina Lepage, 85, lies in a bed. She is malnourished, frail, curled up and bathed in her urine and excrement.
The soiled mattress is pushed back to where it was. The smell in the room was unbearable, prosecutor Anne Gauvin said recently during Mr Landry’s guilty plea.
After several months of investigations, the 82-year-old man was arrested last June by the police department of the Longueuil agglomeration. He was accused of negligence and failed to provide for his wife’s necessities.
He has since pleaded guilty to the second offense and avoided a trial.
“A case like this has never happened to me, I’ve never seen a victim abandoned like that,” commented Detective Sergeant Annie Charland in charge of the file.
embryonic position
The condition of the lady was indeed deplorable. Because she was cemented in the fetal position, hospital staff could not loosen her. Marina Lepage had several bedsores so deep that bone and tendons could be seen.
She was then conscious but had no reaction. One doctor estimated that she was without “basic care” for weeks, even months.
The victim died of a heart attack 12 hours after arriving at the hospital.
The police then went to his home to speak to his wife. After struggling against the agents for a long time, Paul-Henri Landry finally declared himself. If he called an ambulance, it was because his wife had become “too demanding”. Regarding his pressure ulcers, he said he spoke to a doctor about it and was told to start polysporin.
They mutually decided not to go to the hospital, the accused said after his arrest. The defendant and the victim, who had been married for over 50 years at the time, had no children and lived quite isolated.
“Keep up!”
Despite everything, the condition of the lady had been taken to extremes, stressed Sergeant Charland.
“I put myself in that lady’s place and realized it didn’t make a good sense. No one would want to die like that,” she said.
People in their entourage had tried in vain to intervene.
“If I can give one piece of advice, it’s: persevere! Even if you fear that there will be consequences, that it will upset people, that there will be family disputes. Do not hesitate to contact the police,” said the investigator.
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