THE ILLINOIZE: The disgusting, irresponsible, pathetic failure at the LaSalle Veterans' Home...28 dead...Pritzker: "People should be held accountable."...Chapa LaVia "devastated"

December 1, 2020

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

It was inevitable, probably, that COVID-19 would somehow slip inside the doors of the LaSalle Veteran’s Home, a state-run facility about an hour north of Bloomington.

On November 1st, a notice posted by Home Administrator Angela Mehlbrech alerted family members and the public two residents and two staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.

By the end of November, nearly every soul in the 120-bed facility was sick, and nearly 1/4 of its residents were dead.

How on earth was this allowed to happen? How was the virus allowed to spread so quickly? Was this a complete and total institutional breakdown? I don’t know how you can find any answer but “yes.” What may be more troubling is how little responsibility anyone is taking for the problems.

11 DAYS

After the first report of 4 cases November 1, the virus was off to the races.

On November 3, the facility reported 22 positive residents and 7 positive employees.

There were 48 positive residents and 12 positive employees three days later.

62 positive residents and 69 positive employees were reported November 9.

By November 11, there were 81 positive residents and 88 positive employees with the first 7 dead.

By then, a team from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Hines VA in southern Cook County inspected the facility for the first time since the outbreak.

In 11 days, it went from a couple of cases to a killer outbreak.

FUNDAMENTAL FAILURES

The inspection conducted after the outbreak began showed numerous breakdowns in safety procedures at the facility. The inspection found the facility wasn’t using alcohol-based hand sanitizer in patient rooms, instead using a formula that wasn’t effective in killing the virus.

Let me write that again so it sinks in: during the middle of a pandemic killing residents by spreading a virus, the hand sanitizer didn’t work.

Proper masks weren’t being worn in the facility. Some employees were wearing N95 masks, but others were wearing unapproved masks.

Furthermore, proper screening and temperature checks weren’t taking place when staff came in the building.

But there’s more. According to the report staff was only being tested once a week. Eventually, testing picked up and rapid tests were added at some point in November testing employees when they came in the building.

BLAME GAME

You’ll be shocked to learn some are already playing the blame game.

In a hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs committee last week, agency Director Linda Chapa LaVia, a former State Representative, blamed community spread for issues inside the facility.

“It is no coincidence that cases within the home began to rise just as cases rose dramatically in the surrounding community,” she said.

Asked Monday about the outbreak and deaths at the facility, Governor JB Pritzker says he’s hopeful an Inspector General’s investigation shows what breakdowns in the system may have taken place.

“This is a Veterans Home that’s in a community that’s got a very high positivity rate. It’s deeply concerning some of the reports that we hear, the rumors out there, about staff people and whether they handled this properly or whether there was anybody in a supervisory position who may have known about any failures to follow procedures,” Pritzker said.

State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris), who represents the facility, says she has received tips and reports from employees outlining failures to protect patients and staff.

“I’m hearing from all of the employees and constituents and people very close to the situation about breaches that they saw in the protocol that they feel could have caused this massive outbreak in a short amount of time,” she said.

WORKING WHILE SICK?

One of the rumors we’ve been hearing, Rezin, too, for that matter, is that employees were being forced to work if they tested positive or had been in contact with someone who was a positive test.

IDVA Chief of Staff Tony Kolbeck says there were 5 employees who worked with positive tests, but they were working with patients already positive for COVID-19.

“In general, it was notification late at night,” he said. “They’re the only person there for that position. If they went home, it would create another issue and they volunteered to stay.”

SHADOWS OF QUINCY

When cases of Legionnaire’s Disease struck the Quincy Veterans’ Home in 2017, then-candidate JB Pritzker relentlessly attacked the Rauner administration for its response to an outbreak. It took three days for the Rauner administration to inspect the facility, compared to 11 days in the most recent LaSalle COVID-19 outbreak.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s never acceptable when we see rampant infection somewhere,” said Pritzker. “Now remember, this virus is virulent. Whenever it gets into a facility like this, and it usually comes in through somebody who is coming in the door, it’s not the people who are there already who are negative. It’s somebody coming in the door and spreading it to someone else and then it spreads to residents.

But Rezin says the Pritzker administration delaying the release of important information and trying to deflect blame for the outbreak.

“I’ve seen this slow-walked,” she said. “If the management made the wrong decisions, ok. Let’s acknowledge them and tell me what you’re doing to change it. I’m frustrated when I get the 30,000 foot talking points from the administration that it’s COVID spread, it’s community spread, and there’s nothing we can do. I don’t accept that.”

WHERE IS THE ANGER?

One thing you haven’t heard from those involved is anger. Not from Pritzker or Chapa LaVia or in any of the lawmakers asking questions of IDVA and IDPH last week.

State government can be infuriating. And we should be annoyed and frustrated when our tax dollars are misappropriated, misspent, or just wasted away by politicians. For the most part, that doesn’t kill people.

28 residents of our state who gave a portion of their life to serve our state and country in the armed forces, some in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam, have asked the state to help guide them through the twilight of their lives. Now they’re gone.

This facility failed them. The State of Illinois failed them. Politicians failed them. We failed them.

I am angry. I hope you are too.

Please take time this morning to read the whole story. You can find our report by clicking here.

GIVING TUESDAY

They’re calling today “Giving Tuesday.”

I think its the perfect day to give to our online Red Kettle benefitting the Salvation Army.

To go along with the theme of our newsletter this morning, veterans make up 8% of the homeless population. The Salvation Army works to protect them and those suffering from homelessness.

Please consider giving a few bucks to the Salvation Army.

Please keep following updates all day at www.theillinoize.com or on Facebook and Twitter. We’re going to keep pushing for answers on LaSalle, the ComEd controversy, and how the Governor is going to close a $4 billion budget hole.

Thanks for taking the time to read this morning. We hope you’ll share this newsletter with your colleagues and friends to get the word out.

Have a great week.