![]() ![]() On July 25, Rita Esparza also died from COVID-19 after contracting it at the Heights. She was not tested or screened for the disease before she left, a lawsuit states. “It went from a cough to pneumonia to COVID to dead in five days,” her daughter, Tracy LaMonica, recalled later.Īletha Porcaro, 82, died April 21 - a week after she was discharged from the Heights to a senior living complex. But instead the 80-year-old was discharged with a cough after just four days. Phyllis Wyant, who had a small stress fracture in her back, needed six weeks of rehabilitation. Her doctor did not sign that he was notified of the diagnosis until five days later, records show. Sally Lou Scanlon, 80, tested positive weeks after being admitted to the nursing home. The last days of some of the patients who died after catching COVID-19 at the Heights are detailed in court documents. Representatives for the facility’s parent companies and co-defendants, Summit Care LLC and Genesis Healthcare, also declined to comment. Heights administrator Latoya Davis, who is named as a defendant in each lawsuit, declined to comment for this story. In essence, Feldman said, nursing homes invoking the PREP Act could “run out the clock” by drawing out the legal process and deterring more people from filing suit. “They’re going for a form of protection that doesn’t require them to defend their underlying conduct,” said Georgetown University law professor Heidi Li Feldman. Legal experts say the defense is aimed to capitalize on the uncertainty of the law and is likely to ultimately be decided by the U.S. “The PREP Act is designed to enable healthcare providers, including skilled nursing facilities, to focus on using every available means to combat a pandemic and save lives without being chilled in their efforts by the threat of lawsuits,” Heights attorney David Mortensen wrote in court filings, requesting that all five wrongful deaths lawsuits be dismissed. Department of Health and Human Services clarified that nursing homes and other facilities are immune from liability, except for cases where virus mitigation measures were totally disregarded. The statute was expanded in 2020 to limit health providers’ exposure to coronavirus-related lawsuits. That report and Review-Journal interviews with current and former staff and patients painted a picture of a facility where the most basic safety precautions were ignored - both before and after the coronavirus invasion.īut the Heights is invoking the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act), a longstanding federal law that is meant to shield companies fighting public health emergencies. Officials also found a lack of timely, accurate reporting of COVID-19 cases and related deaths to the state. ![]() Nearly half of its 200-member staff have also been infected.Ī 2020 investigative report by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services found alarming deficiencies at the Heights: Staff members were not properly fitted for N95 face masks in quarantine areas, staff improperly wore isolation gowns and jumpsuits and did not socially distance themselves after working with infected residents. More than 100 residents at the Heights have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to data public health officials released this week. “It’s the family’s responsibility to fight for their family, dead or alive. “We’ve had no closure, we’ve had no resolve, we’ve had no peace,” said Sylvia Smith, a litigant whose father died in April 2020. That includes five wrongful death claims for patients who died after becoming infected. The Heights of Summerlin, one of two skilled nursing facilities tied for the state’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, is arguing that a longstanding law guarantees it the same liability protections as companies like COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, according to court documents.Īt least seven families have sued the 190-bed facility for negligence since February. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) Las Vegas nursing home where 30 residents died from COVID-19 is facing several negligence lawsuits, but the facility asserts it is protected from the claims because it followed federal safety directives. Tracy LaMonica show s picture of her mother Phyllis Wyant at her home in Las Vegas, Saturday, July 18, 2020.
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