As Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, nursing home residents from multiple facilities were evacuated to a warehouse where they were allegedly mistreated, including one woman who called 911 to report she had been kidnapped.
Debbie Strickland – who had been living at Maison De'Ville nursing home in Harvey, La. Before the storm hit – called the police just after midnight on Aug. 28, according to USA Today. The 66-year-old had been laying on a hospital cot in the Independence, La., warehouse, wearing nothing but a hospital gown and diaper and waiting for hours for someone to help her to the bathroom.
“I told them I had been kidnapped to the warehouse, and they refused to let me off the cot,” Strickland said Thursday of her experience at 129 Calhoun St. She isn’t sure if any emergency responders ever came.
Strickland was just one of hundreds of nursing home residents packed into the Tangipahoa Parish warehouse, USA Today said. In addition to Strickland’s call, there were at least 30 other calls made to local officials about the facility’s building conditions, food supply and the nursing home residents’ medical conditions.
A man who said he was a stroke patient called 911 Aug. 29 to report he was being treated poorly and was made to lay on a mattress on a concrete floor. Several “breathing stopped” calls came in the following day, along with a call from a dialysis patient who had missed treatments. Someone called 911 Aug. 31 to request help for a diabetic patient who was not able to eat due to little supplies.
A possible death at the facility was also reported “several times” that day, said USA Today.
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Strickland said there were only about four staff members per nursing home on hand to help patients.
“They refused to help me,” she said. “They were barely feeding me. They put a diaper on me and they just changed me whenever, they didn’t care how I used the bathroom. They would just come to the cot when they were in the mood to change me.”
She said the nursing home residents were being physically abused. In her case, they didn’t even give her access to a $900 wheelchair she purchased last year.
Now, the Calhoun Street warehouse is at the center of a statewide investigation, USA Today reported.
Nursing homes that evacuated residents to the facility had their licenses revoked by the Louisiana Department of Health this week. All of the seven homes in question are owned by Bob Dean of Baton Rouge, La., said the department.
Stephen Russo, an attorney for the health department, said agency investigators have been “intimidated” by Dean through a phone conversation and have encountered resistance from nursing home administrators. Russo also said Dean ordered health department personnel off the property when conducting wellness checks.
Families of residents in Dean’s nursing homes did not expect their relatives to be mistreated during the hurricane evacuation. In fact, they were assured that the facilities had evacuation plans approved by the Louisiana Department of Health.
“All of these nursing facilities clearly failed to execute their emergency preparedness plans to provide essential care and services to their residents,” LDH Secretary Dr. Courtney N. Phillips said in a statement.
“When issues arose post-storm, we now know the level of care for these residents plummeted; an individual representing himself as the nursing home owner failed to communicate the situation; and then upon hearing reports from others that conditions at the facility had deteriorated our LDH surveyor was expelled from the property and LDH employees were subject to intimidation. Ultimately, lives were lost – these were grandparents, neighbors and friends, and we know families are hurting. We as a Department are taking formal regulatory action.”
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Some families had to learn of their relatives’ whereabouts through media coverage of the conditions at Calhoun Street. Kacy Lirette was one of them, said USA Today.
When she discovered that her 90-year-old grandmother had been transferred to the facility from South Lafourche Nursing Home in Larose, La., Lirette began making panicked phone calls. This was not the evacuation plan her family saw when her grandmother entered the nursing home two months prior.
After calling every local hospital she could find, Lirette finally found her grandmother, who had been admitted for dehydration, according to a nurse. Upon arrival, her family also found out the 90-year-old had fallen.
“The clothes that had been put on her to go to the hospital were not her clothes,” said Lirette. “Her shirt was bloody. Her pants were soiled. Her shoes, usually pristine white, were full of urine, fecal matter and dirt. She was not in very good condition.”
Lirette said her grandmother is still in the hospital with a serious bladder infection.
“It’s completely unacceptable and disturbing that she and the other elderly people there had to go through that,” Lirette said. “It’s very, very upsetting and frustrating. At the end of the day, somebody needs to be held accountable for this. My grandma did not deserve to go through everything she went through at 90 years old.”
A Louisiana Health Department spokesman told USA Today to file a formal request in order to view the actual evacuation plan submitted by the nursing homes. The department has also not confirmed exactly how many nursing home residents were evacuated to the warehouse. Nola.com reported that the number was around 800.
Strickland, who made it to a new nursing home called Valley View, briefly broke down on Wednesday while talking about her time at the warehouse, said USA Today.
“I’m feeling drained. I’m happy, at the same time, that Valley View rescued me,” she said. “I think it was Jesus who sent me someone to rescue me.”
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