Nearly 70 veterans have died since contracting the coronavirus in the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts, making it the deadliest long-term care facility outbreak in the United States.
Sixty-eight veterans have died since testing positive in the state-run facility. Another 82 residents and 81 staff members have tested positive since the outbreak hit the facility in late March. Many have accused the facility’s administrators of not taking the outbreak seriously, and the state’s prosecutor is looking at bringing a case against the facility if staff members are found to have been negligent.
Edward Lapointe, whose father-in-law suffered a mild case of the coronavirus while there, said the facility set itself up for failure.
“It’s horrific,” Lapointe said. “These guys never had a chance.”
Beth Lapointe claimed the facility did not take testing seriously. Her father’s roommate tested positive for COVID-19 and later died of the illness, but her father was not given a test immediately because he did not show symptoms.
“Every day I would ask different people, ‘What’s going on in there?’ And I would never get information,” she explained.
Bennett Walsh, the facility’s administrator, was put on leave after the 11th death in late March. The state claimed Walsh failed to notify authorities of staffing shortages that forced residents to be in closer contact, but Walsh said the state was fully aware of the “crisis.”
Joan Miller, a nurse at the facility, said the facility has suffered staffing issues for years. She said recent shortages required one wing of the facility to be closed, forcing those residents to be crammed into other parts of the building. Staff shortages also required nurses to work in multiple wings, likely preventing the virus from being contained to one part of the facility.
“Veterans were on top of each other,” Miller said. “We didn’t know who was positive and who was negative, and then they grouped people together, and that really exacerbated it even more. That’s when it really blew up.”
Gov. Charlie Baker has hired outside inspectors to investigate the facility’s response to the coronavirus. State Attorney General Maura Healey has also opened an investigation to “determine if legal action is warranted.”
When the outbreak began, there were nearly 230 residents in the facility. Miller said the outbreak is “somewhat contained” because there are only 106 veterans still living in the facility, and many have already had the virus.
