Elderly mother was living on bathroom floor, court hears at daughter's trial in 2014 death

Chandra Hawkins was so alarmed by the care her mother was providing to her grandmother that the family twice contacted police in 2014 to check on the elderly woman's well-being.

The second time they were called, police found Elene Collins in such bad shape that she was taken to hospital, where she died on Christmas Eve in 2014, a Brandon, Man., courtroom heard Wednesday.

"It's one of the worst things I've had to see in my entire life," Hawkins, a nurse practitioner, said about her grandmother's condition when she arrived at hospital in November 2014. "Her face was so swollen, I couldn't recognize her. She was bruised. She was emaciated."

Rae Deutscher has pleaded not guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life to Collins, who was under her charge. She's on trial before a judge alone in the Court of Queen's Bench.

'One of their worst cases'

"The standard [of care] that she provided her mother … was so subpar that Ms. Collins was in dire condition when police came in contact with her in Nov. 26, 2014," Crown attorney Deidre Badcock said in her opening statement on Wednesday. 

"It's one of their worst cases in terms of health condition that they've ever encountered in the emergency room here in Brandon."

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn told the judge the Crown would not bring evidence about the cause of death.

"Ultimately what the Crown takes issue with is Ms. Deutscher's decision on how she was going to care for her ailing mother," Synyshyn said.

Collins, who was 96 when she died, apparently had been living on the basement bathroom floor, said Hawkins, who had been concerned about her grandmother for a while before she died.

The family first contacted police in June 2014, after Hawkins visited her mom and grandmother and noticed a puncture mark on Collins's cheek.

Deutscher said she was trying to feed Collins and accidentally stabbed her with a fork, Hawkins testified.

Police called in June

After police were called in June, a voluntary mental health assessment was ordered, but no immediate concerns were raised after mental-health specialists visited the home, Brandon police Const. Jeffrey Hoad testified earlier Wednesday.

Court also heard from Laura McGorman, one of the workers in the geriatric mental health unit that was called. 

Family members agreed that best thing for Collins was a personal care home, not Deutscher's home, where Deutscher had been giving her mother herbal supplements, Hawkins testified.

On cross-examination, Hawkins told court that she didn't disagree with the use of herbal remedies or supplements, provided they are used in conjunction with modern medicine. 

She and other family members also urged Deutscher to take Collins to a doctor, but they didn't feel the situation was urgent.

Hawkins and her mother were not on speaking terms for a while, and she didn't see her grandmother again until October 2014, when Deutscher brought Collins to Winnipeg, where Hawkins was living.

"I didn't notice anything about her appearance that made me worried," Hawkins said about Collins in October.

Hawkins and her mother continued to speak to one another after that visit, but she became concerned again when her mother said Collins had fallen and hit her head. Hawkins got her mother to promise to take Collins to the doctor, but she never did.

'Extremely alarming'

"It was clear to me that she wasn't going to take her and I had to," Hawkins testified, and she started to make arrangements to do so when she heard something "extremely alarming."

"I don't know how we're going to get her out of the basement," Deutscher said, according to Hawkins's testimony.

"I assumed Grandma had been cared for in a bed…. She told me that she made her a bed on the bathroom floor [in the basement] with a duvet and she had been living on the bathroom floor."

The family called police and Collins was removed from the home on Nov. 26, 2014, and taken to hospital, where Hawkins saw her grandmother in terrible condition.

"I was upset that my grandma had passed away under horrific circumstances," Hawkins later testified.

Hawkins's father — Brian Deutscher, who was no longer with Rae at the time Collins was hospitalized — testified that it looked like a boxer had fought with Collins when he saw her in the hospital, due to the amount of bruising on her face and neck. 

On cross-examination, Synyshyn asked Hawkins several question about the timeline in 2014, her concerns and what she knew. 

She testified that when Collins moved in with Rae Deutscher in early 2014, "Aside from the fact that grandma hadn't been taken to see a doctor, I didn't have any major concerns at that time."

She was also asked what steps she took when family members questioned the move, with Shynyshyn suggesting she did nothing.

"I visited regularly and checked in regularly and made sure she was doing OK. That's not nothing," she said.

'The EMS guys were quite frantic'

Two Brandon police officers — Const. Jason Richards and Sgt. Edward Conway— who were called to Deutscher's home in November 2014 also testified on Wednesday. 

Conway said Richards and paramedics were already in the bathroom, where they had discovered Collins, when he arrived at the home.

"It appeared the EMS guys were quite frantic in there," Conway told court. "It seemed to be a little more frantic than what I typically see."

After seeing the situation, he decided to question Deutscher, he said.

"I didn't understand her point of view as I spoke to her," he recalled. "I remarked to Const. Richards that it's an odd situation and that it's probably going to end up in another ... venue at some point."

Conway said Deutscher had told him her mother was in the bathroom because she had severe diarrhea.

Richards testified he was told she was in the bathroom because Deutscher was unable to carry her back and forth between the bedroom and bathroom.

When he found Collins, her breathing was very shallow and she was essentially unconscious, he said.

Deutscher was arrested and charged in June 2016.

She sat with her lawyer on Wednesday, with short blond hair and dressed in a black coat, at times wiping away tears as details of her mother's care and death were discussed. 

No defence witnesses were called on Wednesday. However, Synyshyn cross-examined several of the witnesses, spending the longest time questioning Hawkins.

Three witnesses are expected to testify on Thursday. 

The trial is scheduled to last the rest of the week.