Coronavirus Outbreak Hits Burbank Nursing Home

BURBANK (CBSLA) -- Ten employees and seven residents have tested positive for coronavirus at the Alameda Care Center in Burbank. Two people have died so far.

A woman, now widowed as a result of the concentrated outbreak, says she believes more could have been done.

"It wasn't done right," said Willa Robinson, who lost her husband of 55 years to COVID0-19. "I felt like he still had some life in him and I think it was snatched away from him."

Robinson last saw her husband Vernon on March 13 during one of her regular visits to the nursing home, where he had been a resident for the past two years.

"When they found out that one person contracted the virus, something should have been done. I think we should have been told," Robinson said.

Officials from Alameda Care Center said they called all relatives or responsible parties of those who were sick and told them what was going on.

Robinson said she was told her husband would be going to the hospital because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure. She didn't know Vernon had coronavirus until a doctor called her saying his lungs failed due to the virus.

Vernon died just a few days later.

Now, Robinson is working through the grief of the unexpected loss.

"The sadness that he's gone -- but always what he went through and the suffering that he had to do," she said.

Robinson has been quarantined since March 13 when she last saw her husband and says so far she hasn't been showing any symptoms. She said she hopes to start planning his funeral next week.