Struggling with chronic pain and Alzheimers, grandma Maureen McCumesky is desperate to see her family.
The 86-year-old former Boots chemist dispenser has poor eyesight and losing her language skills, the MEN reports.
Maureen was widowed at 35 and left to raise 10 kids - which she did magnificently, resulting in a huge family containing 60 grandchildren and great-grandkids.
Daily contact with her family is essential to her wellbeing - but poor Maureen has been locked down and confined to her room almost every day since the end of December.
As covid restrictions everywhere are being lifted and the world reopens, her care home in Stockport has suffered a series of outbreaks
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Following two years of strict restrictions, this new round of isolation is unbearable for Maureen and her close-knit family.
Only her daughter Teresa Dumencic is still granted access, in line with Government guidelines.
She is required to take a test before each visit and wears a mask, gown and gloves.
The 65-year-old has said she doesn't blame the home - but fears that as infections rise and free testing is scrapped, further lockdowns like this will affect more families.
Teresa, 65, who teaches visually impaired and blind children, said: “There’s no point in my mum living locked up in a room. It’s just cruel because she’s forgetting who everybody is.
“I go as much as I can but I’m working. She’s so confused, every time I go I have to explain why she’s not seeing her grandchildren. She doesn’t understand.
“She hears voices outside her room and wonders if it’s family members who aren’t coming in. We feel like we’ve lost her already, it’s like she’s in God’s waiting room.
“My mum has fought for us to have a good education, everybody in the family has done well and it’s all because of my mum. She loves her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren so much and they love her, they just want to see each other desperately.
“The children all keep asking ‘when can we see Nana Maureen?'"
Teresa added: “She’s warm, comfortable and well-fed but so lonely. Her whole life is her family. We owe her everything, that’s we are so passionate about making her last years happy. That’s all we want."
With family members willing to test and wear PPE for every visit, Maureen feels there should be more scope for her family to visit.
Teresa added: “Mum is in the last few years of her life. We do not want her to live forever but we do want her to enjoy whatever time she has left.
"There must be a better way forward, surely residents who are ill should be looked after in their rooms and staff who are ill should stay at home and let the elderly residents live their lives and breathe some fresh air.
"We'd take what we could get - a pod visit, an outdoor visit. Any kind of visit.
“It feels like my mum is in prison. She has no rights and no voice and that cannot be right.”
An outbreak is defined as two or more people testing positive for Covid., and it is understood that weekly PCR tests at the home have recorded this for much of 2022.
Maureen has not tested positive once since the start of the pandemic.
Although the ground floor of the home remains open to visitors, residents on the first floor are in lockdown.
Government guidance states: "In the event of an outbreak in a care home, outbreak restrictions will be in place for different lengths of time, depending on the characteristics of the outbreak and the results of outbreak testing."
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago, Maureen moved into sheltered living, and enjoyed regular visits from her family.
Thanks to the pandemic and less contact, her condition deteriorated and, following reassessment, she was moved to a care home in Offerton, then to a home in Cheadle.
Like thousands of care home residents across the country, much of the last two years have been spent isolating.
Judy Downey, chair of the Relatives and Residents Association, said Covid was currently ‘terribly prevalent’ in the over-70s group, adding: “Regardless of outbreaks, this mother still has a right to see her family.
"Obviously, people are expected to take a test but there’s no reason, when the rest of the world is doing whatever they like, why someone who desperately needs daily contact with family is being left to waste away.”
Councillor Jude Wells, Stockport Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Care & Health, said: “While we know that families will be anxious to see their loved ones, in many homes systems have been put in place such as window, pod or garden visits or using technology like video calling to ensure regular contact is maintained."
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We continue to do everything we can to protect care home residents and staff, while recognising the importance of companionship for those receiving care and their families.
“Some restrictions are sensible and reasonable during an outbreak, but the guidance is clear that essential caregivers should still have access.
“As we learn to live with the virus, it is as important as ever that anyone not yet vaccinated or boosted comes forward for their jab.”
