Nursing home worker forced to move hotels after contracting COVID-19

A personal support worker (PSW) on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic says she was forced to pack up her stuff and move hotels while she was still suffering from the respiratory illness.

In April, Courtney Nesbitt left her partner, family and friends inPeterborough, Ont., after answering an ad for personal support workers needed to help with ongoing outbreaks at several long-term care facilities in Ottawa.

She started working atExtendicare Laurier Manor on Montreal Road, where she cared for multiple COVID-19 patients andtook pride in her work.

"I like working with people, and it's nice to give them that bit of comfort knowing that there's other people there that care about them," she said. "Residents are scared because they don't know what's going on, either with their illness or in general."

I don't think I've been treated right. I wish I'd never came. I wish I'd stayed home, to be honest.- Courtney Nesbitt

She said the company put her up in a hotel suite at the Homewood Suites by Hilton nearthe Ottawa International Airport. Everything was going well until May 18, when in the middle of her shift she became very thirsty and started sweating.

"Being in [personal protective equipment], it's hot. Never thought anything of it," Nesbitt said.

But when her temperature was taken at the end of her shift, she had a fever andwas told to get tested for COVID-19. The next morning she got the result: positive.

Her symptoms got progressively worse over the next few daysand included fever, cough,headaches, chills and muscle aches. She was spending most of her time in bed and didn't leave her room.

'I felt humiliated'

The following Sunday afternoon, the hotelcalled her to tell her she had to leave, and would be transferred to a nearby hotel that wasundergoing renovations. Nesbitt said she was told it was because hotel staff were refusing to come to work as long as she was in the building.

She felt angry and frustrated.

"I don't feel good soI don't want to get out of bed. I'm tired," she said. "It really upset me that I was being told that I had to leave because I have COVID-19, because people don't understand how it works."

Nesbitt was given a mask, gloves and face shield, and had to pack up her stuff, put it on a luggage cart and make her way out of the building, trying to avoid other guests.

"Normally I'm pretty strong, but I struggled putting my stuff on the cart," she said. "I felt humiliated."

She said the hotel manager has been understanding and offered to replace items she left behind out of her own pocket.

Nesbitt's employer said it was surprised to learn she'd been forced to move hotels.

"We are extremely grateful to all our employees who travel to work in homes inoutbreak. We thank all of them for their courage and dedication in this challenging time," Cory Nezan, Extendicare's regional director, wrote in a statement to CBC Ottawa.

"We understood this to be a mutual agreement between our staff member and hotel management for the safety of others in the hotel, and we are very concerned to hear that may not be the case."

The company said it continues to provide accommodation support for any employees who contract COVID-19, and plans to follow up with Nesbitt.

Hotel provided alternative accommodations, food

In a statement to CBC Ottawa, the hotelconfirmedit has been housing employees of a health care company, and said it has arranged for alternativeaccommodations forany employees who test positive for COVID-19 at another property less than 200 metres away.

"We have done what we can to show this guest our hospitality, providing additional groceries, hot meals, and cooking equipment at no cost to her or her employer," the hotel said in a statement.

But Nesbitt wantsthe hotel to come up with a plan to ensure others in her situation aren't made to feel humiliated, as she said she was.

"I don't think I've been treated right. I wish I'd never came. I wish I'd stayed home, to be honest," she said. "I just hope if somebody else gets sick they could produce a plan and let us know what that plan is."