When Louise Rice learned her father had little time to live, she scrambled to travel from her home in Quebec to the Edmundston hospital to be by his side.

But during her father’s final minutes of life, she was left stranded in the parking lot — stopped by paperwork from saying a final goodbye.

“I was in the car. I was there. And then he was gone,” Rice told Radio-Canada.

Rice crossed the provincial border without issues on Jan. 15 and was told at the hospital she needed to pass a COVID-19 rapid test to enter the palliative care unit. 

The Edmundston Regional Hospital had a trailer in the parking lot for testing — but pre-registration was required.

“I was on the phone, I was online, I did three or four applications,” the Quebec City resident said. 

After hospital staff told Rice to hurry because her father did not have much longer to live, she knocked on the trailer door.

The response: No paperwork, no test.

Stopped by bureaucracy

Robert Rice died at about 9:30 p.m. with his daughter metres away, left stranded in the parking lot. Rice, a lawyer who had served on the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, was 90.

His daughter said she doesn’t understand why a rapid test would be the measure in determining if she could be by his bedside. 

Public Health has said rapid tests are but are meant to be used for symptomatic people.

“Dress me in a hospital gown, anything. I wouldn’t touch anyone, but let me touch the hand of my father to tell him I’m there and love him,” Rice said.

“No human being deserves to live through this — especially not my father.”

Robert Rice was a longtime lawyer in the Edmundston area and ended his career on the Appeal Court.

He was a resident of Lac Baker and spent time living in Fredericton.

Dying alone

New Brunswick’s regional health authorities have faced criticism for strict hospital visitation rules over the past month, with several instances of family members unable to see dying or severely ill relatives.

In one situation, an 80-year-old was for holding her husband’s hand.

As father dies in Edmundston hospital, daughter pleads from parking lot for chance to say goodbye

CBC News New Brunswick

The province recently revised rules to allow expanded vists, under revised orange-phase restrictions. But for people entering from outside the province — the rules are more complicated.

Vitalité Health Network told CBC News if there is no time to isolate before an imminent death, out-of-province visitors should make arrangements with the hospital for a rapid test.

Spokesperson Thomas Lizotte said family members must wait for the result outside the hospital and can enter once a negative result has been received. Visitors must wear personal protective equipment and can only visit one time in the 24 hours after the negative test.

Health Minister Dorothy Shephard called a situation such as Rice’s “heartbreaking” and said she will work with the health authorities to see what obstacles remain in place.

“Certainly, when we have individual circumstances that are dire, I think we would like to help in anyway we can,” she said at a news conference Wednesday.

When Rice’s health started to deteriorate rapidly, his family was left without about 12 hours to come to his bedside. It left little time for his daughter to navigate crossing the provincial border and arranging for a rapid test.

At the time of Rice’s death, the Edmundston region had been in the highly restrictive red phase of COVID recovery for more than two weeks. No visits were allowed to hospital patients, expect for palliative care. Rice was not moved to that unit until the morning of the day he died.

No family members were present.

“What devastated me the most and what I find the most inhumane, is that my father spent two and a half weeks alone,” Rice said.