The emptying of St Basil’s Home for Aged Care last week and transport of residents to hospitals around Melbourne caused concern for Marina Milou, who did not want her mother to go through this burden. She was worried that hospitalisation would cause a strain on 94-year-old Maria Rapti, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on 15 July but had not shown any symptoms.

After a great deal of negotiation and two negative tests to COVID-19, doctors gave permission for Ms Rapti to be discharged from Austin. Managing to take her home on Tuesday, Ms Milou felt relieved that her mother was in a familiar environment.

At hospital, nurses had been unable to calm down the elderly woman who had been disoriented from all the recent turbulence and changes. “You see, people who suffer from dementia stress easily when they encounter a new area. They don’t recognise where they are and have difficulty understanding what is happening to them,” Ms Milou said, happy that the second test had come out negative so that Ms Rapti could be immediately brought to her home.

Once home, the elderly woman’s spirits soared. “She is in good spirits and very happy to be with us. When she got home she kept thanking God again and again,” Ms Milou said.

“I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for all those people who lost their parents. This entire experience is traumatic. It is truly excruciating being unable to see your parent, not being near them when something like this happens.

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“That is why I decided to bring her home. Here I have control. Nobody can deny me from seeing my mother, or how I should see her, or if I can talk to her and when.”

Physically, Ms Rapti never showed any symptoms and it was like she never had the virus at all. Ms Milou said her mother was shaken by the situation, and despite her dementia is intensely focused on hat she has been through. “Since the start of the outbreak at St Basil’s around 15-20 days ago, the ordeal was traumatic. When the government took over and we lost communication with her, it was a very bad period,” Ms Milou said, adding that the elderly were so speedily evacuated from the unit that even Ms Raptis clothes are not her own. “We still don’t know what happened to her clothes, especially her glasses which she needs to have in order to knit or draw. I don’t know if they threw them out or if they are still at the home. I am , of course, grateful that I managed to bring her here.”

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Ms Milou said she has no complaints about the previous management of St Basil’s. “I can honestly say that all the times I visited my mother at St Basil’s before the outbreak, the areas were always clean. My mother was always taken care of and happy. She never expressed the desire to come home. She seemed truly satisfied there,” she said.