Maria Sousa, 83, was admitted to a Montreal-area hospital sporting her engagement ring, however it wasn’t on her finger when she left.
Sousa, who has Alzheimer’s, was admitted to Cité-de-la-Santé Laval in March, the place her household says she was robbed from her mattress.
But it surely’s not solely what was stolen that shocked Sousa’s daughters, however how.
“That is past stealing,” Coralie Maria Oliveira informed CTV Information. “Somebody got here in with a device to chop my mother’s ring.”
Sousa usually wears two rings, her daughter defined: her diamond engagement ring, after which her marriage ceremony band.
However she wakened one morning to search out the diamond ring gone and her gold band snipped open. The latter was nonetheless on her finger, with tape wrapped across the jagged edges the place it had been lower.
Oliveira suspects a thief snuck in after her mom went to mattress, utilizing pliers to chop the gold band and get to the diamond ring behind it.
“My mother takes a tablet to sleep and it actually knocks her out,” she mentioned.
In Oliveira’s view, the tape on the ring signifies a premeditated act.
“They’d simply put tape trigger they figured, because it’s lower, she’s going to harm herself,” she mentioned.
“That is one thing you propose forward.”
Oliveira and her sister filed a police report, however what they actually need is the hospital to take motion, with extra safety measures to forestall this from occurring to a different affected person.
Cité-de-la-Santé says an inside investigation is underway.
Maria Sousa is now out of the hospital. Her husband — who gave Sousa the ring 57 years in the past — can not look after her, and she or he’s now residing in a long-term care residence.
Oliveira mentioned the entire expertise has left them feeling disturbed.
“It turns into extra like an aggression, [it’s] someone who’s sleeping and also you’re touching her. It is extra than simply stealing.”