November 14th 2023.
Families of over 100 veterans who died at the New York State Veterans Home in Queens, New York, have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the facility failed to follow COVID-19 protocol and violated the Constitutional right of the residents to “conditions of reasonable care and safety” established by the 14th Amendment. This lawsuit claims that the home faced 'one of the worst' virus outbreaks in the entire state during the height of the pandemic.
The lawsuit reads in part, “This class-action is brought because defendant NYS-VH patently grossly failed to be a steward of the well-being of our nation’s and state’s veterans, by failing to timely act to protect their veterans/residents from exposure to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in their facility.” The complaint also accuses the facility of hiding that their relatives had gotten COVID-19 until after they had died.
The lawsuit also claims that the Veterans Home’s “actions and inactions, including their delayed response to properly monitor staff, students, companions, aides and visitors to their facility, precipitated one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in all the State of New York.” Before the pandemic, according to the lawsuit, the Veterans Home had been cited for a failure to “provide and implement an infection prevention and control program and not ensuring that proper hand hygiene practices were performed during tracheostomy care” as well as failing to “assess their residents when there are significant changes in condition.” The facility had 87 complaints filed against it and has been cited for 16 violations of public and safety health codes between 2019 and 2023.
According to The City, in 2020 bodies were being held inside of the facility and staff members were assigned to float between other units, which may have allowed the virus to spread further. The outlet also reported that patients who had the virus were allowed to stay in rooms with patients who didn’t have it, which may have added to the severity of the outbreak. The prevailing thought from leaders of the facility, according to an employee of the facility, was that the deaths were unavoidable.
As compensation, the families seek unspecified damages and the cost of attorney fees. Staff members told The City that the deaths of the residents affected them deeply, with one employee remarking, “These were not just residents. We knew these residents—they were like family.”
This case serves as a reminder of the importance of taking proper safety and health precautions to protect the lives of our veterans. It is a tragedy that so many lives were lost, and we must work to ensure that no such cases occur in the future.
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