The woman who was supposed to be caring for B.C. woman Florence Girard before she died of starvation in 2018 told a coroner’s inquest she was deterred from getting help before Girard starved to death by policies about respecting the rights of people living under their home-sharing arrangement.
Astrid Dahl also says she was “in denial” when she noticed Girard’s rapid weight loss in the months leading up to her death.
Dahl says she first noticed Girard was losing significant weight in the summer, just months before she died, weighing about 50 pounds.
But she says Girard would go into “meltdown” every time she was supposed to go to the doctor or receive medical care, and this influenced Dahl’s decision to keep Girard at home instead of taking her to hospital as her condition worsened.
Girard lived at Dahl’s home under a program for people with developmental disabilities overseen by the Kinsight Community Society after being contracted by the provincial Crown corporation Community Living B.C.
A coroners inquest into the death of a woman with Down syndrome in government-funded care began Monday. We’ll hear from her sister, and an advocate about what they hope to see come out of the inquest.
Dahl has told the inquest she would approach things differently now, given Girard’s death.
However, Girard’s strong reactions against going to doctors, as well as policies about respecting Girard’s rights, resulted in Dahl not getting her medical help.
“She didn’t want to go,” Dahl testified. “And I was told if Flo says no, she has rights. And she can say no, she doesn’t want to do it, and I can’t force her to do it. That’s what it says in their handbook.
“I’ve had time to think these things and what could I have done differently for a long time, and there’s many things I could have done differently,” she said. “And that would be one of them.”
Dahl, who was convicted in 2022 for failing to provide the necessities of life, said she reported Girard’s outbursts and refusal of medical care to managers at Kinsight but received no solutions.
The inquest that started on Monday is scheduled to continue until Jan. 22, when a jury is expected to deliberate on possible changes to the care system to prevent similar cases in the future.
“Because of her hatred of hospitals and doctors, I just thought if I could take care of her, she would bounce back,” Dahl testified on Tuesday.
“I was in denial. I clearly know that now.”
Dahl said she decided as Girard’s condition worsened that it was better to keep her at home instead of letting her die alone in hospice because of the distress medical settings caused Girard.
“I’ve known her for 30 years,” Dahl testified. “I’m not going to let something horrible happen to her at the very end of 30 years. Why would I do that? Why would I care and love someone for 30 years and then turn around and just go, ‘Oh well, who cares? Who gives a shit? Just put her in hospice. She’ll die by herself. Whatever.’
“It didn’t make sense to me at the time. It still doesn’t make sense to me.”
Dahl told the inquest of first meeting Girard in 1990 when she started working at Kinsight’s predecessor in a group-home setting, saying they “hit it off” due to a shared “crazy sense of humour.”
Dahl said Girard had challenges socializing with others at the group home, eventually leading to the house-sharing situation beginning in 2010.
More funding support needed: advocate
Girard’s sister told the inquest Monday that she would have looked after her sister had she received some sort of funding support.
Earlier in the day, the president of a Down syndrome advocacy group in British Columbia told the inquest that more funding support is needed for parents and caretakers to avoid tragedies such as Girard’s death.
Tamara Taggart says parents and caretakers are under heavy financial pressure to provide services such as speech therapy, which can be life-altering for people with Down syndrome.
Taggart, whose organization was launched in 2021 in direct response to Girard’s death, says her family had to pay $12,000 a year for therapy to help her son learn how to eat solid food, and the province provides no support in her case or other similar situations.
She says her family is in a position of privilege to be able to pay and live in Vancouver to access that care, but other families are shut out from similar care for their loved ones because of the high cost and access.
