Family Of Man Who Died After Contracting COVID-19 Sues Hollywood Nursing Home Where He Lived
HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA) — A lawsuit has been filed against a Hollywood nursing home where a 78-year-old man contracted coronavirus and died.
Jamie Ivey, James Ivey's daughter, said she could hear her father's faint voice during a phone call with a nurse just hours before he died April 20 at Hollywood Premier Healthcare Center.
"I could her him yelling 'Help' in the background, which was devastating," she said.
Ivey said the nursing home did not tell the family that her father had contracted COVID-19 until the day before his death — two weeks after he first tested positive.
"Literally my heart dropped to my stomach," she said. "I mean, I was like, 'Oh my God, no.'"
COVID-19 is listed on the man's death certificate as one of the causes of his death.
The family said the nursing home where he had been staying since January failed to follow basic infection protocols after coronavirus was declared a pandemic.
"They didn't stop patients from going from room to room," Ivey said. "They didn't wear their proper equipment. They didn't wear masks."
The nursing home sent a letter, postmarked April 10, stating that a resident had been diagnosed with COVID-19, but Ivey said her father tested positive April 4.
Ivey also said she and other family members had not been allowed to visit the nursing home since mid-March.
"One of the important parts of the checks and balances in the nursing home industry is the relative's ability to come in and look at their loved ones," attorney Dmitriy Cherepinskiy said. "And that provides the oversight that's important."
According to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, 58 residents and 38 staff members at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19. At least 19 of them have died.
Ivey said the nursing home should have moved her father into a hospital as soon as they knew he had contracted the disease.
"Yesterday was his birthday," she said. "We could have been celebrating his birthday yesterday, and now we can't do that."
Multiple requests for comment from Hollywood Premiere have not been returned.
