A Moncton family says hospital COVID-19 visitation restrictions for patients in palliative care need to be more clearly defined to front-line staff after a case of miscommunication kept their loved one from seeing her children.

Tina Baker of Moncton said she had been pleading with staff at the Moncton Hospital to allow her sister, Colleen Cail, to visit with her youngest daughters more frequently while she is in palliative care at the hospital.

“She is at the end of her life and we are fighting to try to get those children in to see her,” said Baker.

The 49-year-old mother of four has terminal breast cancer and is fading fast, Baker said.

Cail’s oldest daughter and son have been allowed to visit with her regularly: “I sit next to her and hold her hand” said 18-year-old Alyce Cail. But she said her younger sisters, Reyce, 11 and Chayce, 9, have only seen their mother once since the beginning of January.

“They are so little, they are so young, and she is so important to them. I don’t get how they can not allow them to be in there with her,” said Alyce.

Baker says she was told by hospital staff that COVID-19 hospital visitation restrictions prohibit children under the age of 12 to visit with patients, even in palliative care.