Image credit: Jason Keller

By Adam Berls

simon fraser lodge

Family alleging negligence of care home in mother’s death

Jan 12, 2023 | 3:54 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — A family whose mother was a resident of the Simon Fraser Lodge care home is alleging negligence after she passed away in December.

62 year old Kelly Ashton was a resident at Simon Fraser Lodge in Prince George from 2020 to 2022. In November, Kelly suffered a series of falls, at one point falling twice within a 24 hour period. Her son Jason Keller says that his mother had early on set dementia, but could still remember faces and names.

Northern Health told CKPG News that they cannot comment on individual patient or long-term care resident cases to protect the privacy of those whether at Northern Health facilities or those where services are contracted by Norther Health, as is the case with Simon Fraser Lodge, and their condolences are with the families involved.

Michele Thomson, the vice president of Buron, the parent company of Simon Fraser Lodge, says that the lodge follows a falls reduction program when incidents like this take place. They say that incidents are investigated internally and reported to all required regulatory bodies.

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Kelly passed away on December 1st, 2022, less than a month after being admitted to hospital. Jason says that his mom was a joy to be around and was full of life.

Jason and his family hope that changes can be made and when falls happen patients will get to see a doctor sooner, and are overwhelmed by the amount of support and condolences they have received after the passing of Kelly.