Family of Severely Disabled Woman Who Died After Scalding Bath Wants Inquiry

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. (CP) – The family of a severely disabled woman who died after being put in a bathtub of hot water is calling for the Saskatchewan government to hold an inquiry into her death.

Diane Poff, 51, received first, second and third-degree burns to 15 per cent of her body after being lowered into the scalding bath at the Palliser Regional Care Centre in 2005.

She had cerebral palsy and could not even cry out in pain.

Her family has received $85,000 from the health region for the accident, but they are not satisfied with the way the case has been handled.

Jim Hornell, CEO of Cypress Health Region, says the health authority doesn’t want to get into a “blame and shame culture.”

He says that would prevent people from being able to own up to mistakes and accidents.

Poff’s sister Luanne Wagner says the family heard nothing new in Thursday night’s meeting with health officials.

“Talk is cheap for us … I think the genuineness is just not there,” she said.

A fatality inquiry was held in Edmonton after 90-year-old Jennie Nelson died after being lowered into scalding bath water in a nursing home in 2004.

Nelson, a frail woman with Alzheimer’s disease, died nine days after suffering severe burns to her lower legs during a bath at Jubilee Lodge Nursing Home.

One staff member had filled a bathtub with very hot water. Then a second aide, without checking the water temperature, lowered Nelson into the scalding water with a mechanical lift.

Nelson wasn’t taken to hospital until more than an hour after she was burned because the nurse on duty delayed calling an ambulance.

Inquiry Judge Main Lloyd Main recommended government inspectors should check each facility’s water supply system, tubs, gauges and controls, and he recommended all tubs have an anti-scald device that shuts off the water coming into the tub if it goes over 41 degrees.

Main said the new rules must be strictly monitored and enforced and should be backed up either by government legislation or contract commitments made between the long-term care companies and health regions.

One method of enforcement might be spot checks on staff to ensure they are obeying the safety rules, he said.