N.S. man charged with criminal negligence after senior left for hours in mobility van

A man has been charged with criminal negligence after a Nova Scotia senior was left alone in a van for hours.

A man has been charged with criminal negligence after a Nova Scotia senior was left alone in a mobility van for several hours earlier this month.

East Hants District RCMP responded to a report of a missing 81-year-old man around 10:40 p.m. on June 11.

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Police learned the man was last seen at 3:30 p.m. when he was picked up by a public transit service outside a home.

The man, who has been identified by his family as Donald McKeen, was found in a public transit service vehicle just before 11 p.m.

Police say the man, who was the only person inside the vehicle, was found in medical distress and taken to hospital.

On Thursday, 64-year-old George Morrison of Stanley, N.S., was charged with causing bodily harm by criminal negligence and failure to provide necessities.

Morrison is due to appear in Shubenacadie provincial court on Aug. 25.

McKeen’s family says the RCMP has been updating them on the case, so they knew the charges were coming, but they didn’t know when they would be laid.

“It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone,” said his daughter, Kristen Giles, on Monday.

‘He’s lost so much’

Last week, Giles told CTV News a mobility van took her father from the Magnolia Continuing Care Community Home in Enfield, N.S., to her home for a routine visit.

She said the van dropped her father off at her house around 1 p.m. and the driver came back to pick him up just before 3 p.m.

Giles said she received a call from the care facility at 10:30 p.m. saying McKeen hadn’t returned.

Giles and her husband tracked down the van and used a flashlight to look inside. When they saw her father’s wheelchair inside the vehicle, she said they smashed the window and found him on the floor.

“We thought he was gone when we found him,” she said last week. “I found him and he was really, really weak.”

McKeen was rushed to hospital. Giles said the heat inside the locked vehicle combined with being stuck in a cramped space took a toll on her father, who spent a week in hospital.

Giles told CTV News on Monday that her father is back at the Magnolia Continuing Care Community Home, but he’s unable to feed himself or push his own wheelchair.

“He’s lost so much,” she said. “He can’t really talk to us anymore, he can’t communicate.”

For now, Giles says McKeen will remain at the facility. She says they never had any issues with the care home before the incident and acknowledges it would be difficult to place him somewhere else.

“Because of the state of our long-term care home and everybody trying to get in one, it’s not easy,” said Giles.

“I don’t know what to do. He requires a lot of care. Aside from coming home and having private care, and really, we’ve done that before, we’ve done that before he went in long-term care, and having caregivers kind of consistently is not easy.”

As for what happens next, she just wants to see her father’s health improve.

“The only thing I would like to see happen is dad get some quality of life back,” she said. “It’s just going to take time.”

The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness released the following statement to CTV News last week:

“We were made aware of this very upsetting and serious incident. We did not arrange the transportation service, we understand it was booked independently and took place separate from the long-term care facility.”

Requests for an interview with the Magnolia Continuing Care Community were denied, with the director of care saying they had no comment at this time.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page