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Giller, who had survived famine as a child in Ukraine and barely escaped the massacre of Ukrainian Jews by the Nazis in the Second World War, died 10 days later at The Ottawa Hospital. She was 88.

Photo by Blair Crawford / POSTMEDIA

“I was in shock,” said Hillyer, who was a medical doctor in Ukraine before coming to Canada in 2013 to care for his mother. “The nurse comes from Hillel Lodge and she talked very rudely. She says she has an order from the management of Hillel Lodge to not accept my mother back to the Hillel Lodge.

“She did not check on my mom. She did not look at her. She did not check her pulse or her vital signs,” said Hillyer, who filed complaints with the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and the Patient Ombudsman, both of which have said they are investigating the incident.

Giller’s condition had deteriorated over the summer and she required repeated hospitalization for dehydration and constipation. She was admitted to The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus on Aug. 30 and stayed 17 days before being sent back to the lodge at around 11 a.m. on Sept. 16. Hillyer visited her at the lodge that day and spoon fed her a fortified soup for lunch, which she enjoyed. Giller slept that afternoon and Hillyer went home but was called by the lodge around 7:30 p.m. and told his mother was being sent back to the hospital.

Hillyer went to the lodge and rode with her in the ambulance to the Civic and stayed with her until 11 p.m. Medical staff checked her vital signs and found them normal, and found no problems with her vital organs, he said. Hillyer went home to sleep, leaving a caregiver he paid out of his own pocket to stay with her overnight. The caregiver called at 3 a.m. to say the hospital was sending Giller back to Hillel Lodge by Priority Patient Transfer service.