US family laments lack of protection for aged

As residents at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, began dying in late February from a coronavirus outbreak that would eventually take 43 lives, there was little sign of trouble at the Cobble Hill Health Center, a 360-bed facility in an upscale section of Brooklyn.

Its Facebook page posted a cheerful story encouraging relatives to quiz their aging loved ones about their lives, and photos of smiling third graders at a nearby school making flower arrangements for residents.

That quickly changed.

By the middle of March, the CEO began sending increasingly alarmed emails about banning visitors, screening staff, confining residents, wiping down all surfaces, and having all-hands-on-deck meetings to prepare everyone for the coming coronavirus "freight train."

Interviews with friends and relatives who have visited the Cobble Hill Health Center in recent weeks, as well as the home's own statements, paint a picture of a facility overwhelmed and unequipped to deal with its coronavirus outbreak.

The center had shortages of staff, personal protective equipment and the availability of reliable testing.

"How could you not have a plan for our most vulnerable, those that we have to honor our parents?" said Daniel Arbeeny, who brought his ailing 88-year-old father from a hospital to the home in late March.

Arbeeny's father later died of COVID-19.

Arbeeny feels the his father and others were let down by the elected leaders.

"It's something that should have been known and prepared for by the federal, especially the state, since it's all regulated by the state and local government," said Arbeeny.

"A lot has come out after my father died that we learned. And it's it's sad how our policies in this state have led to so many deaths."

Of the nation's more than 26,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, a fifth of them — about 5,300 — are in New York, according to a count by The Associated Press, and the toll has been increasing by an average of 20 to 25 deaths a day for the past few weeks.

Residents' relatives, health care watchdogs and lawmakers from both parties cite problems with testing and transparency that have prevented officials — and the public — from grasping the full scale of the catastrophe.

And they are second-guessing a state directive that requires nursing homes take on new patients infected with COVID-19 — an order they say accelerated outbreaks in facilities that are prime breeding grounds for infectious diseases.

"I am sure that the fact that they didn't have enough PPE got people infected, but the bulk of them were the patients being forced upon them with the virus and they had no idea whether they had it or not," said Arbeeny.

Arbeeny said that while his family is sad and angry they've decided to act instead of sulk.

They have delivered 500 masks to local nursing homes in hopes other families don't have to suffer the same tragedy as their family has.