A Lebanon nursing home is being sued by the daughter of one of its former residents who died after contracting Covid-19 in May 2020.
Alton attorney Lanny Darr filed the complaint on April 27 on behalf of plaintiff Tammy MacLaughlin, independent administrator of the estate of Carol Tribble, against Petersen Healthcare Management Inc., Petersen Health Group LLC and Petersen Health Network, doing business as Lebanon Care Center LLC. MacLaughlin is Tribble’s daughter.
The suit states that Tribble was an 81-year-old resident at the Lebanon Care Center nursing home. During her time there, she contracted Covid-19 “as a result of the defendants’ gross negligence.”
“Carol’s injuries and suffering were a byproduct of years, if not decades of the nursing home’s mismanagement, misallocation of resources and understaffing, and repeated violations and cited deficiencies of Infection Control and Prevention requirements,” Darr wrote.
“Airborne and communicable diseases and pathogens have always had a profoundly lethal impact on nursing home residents, and in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and despite having both actual and constructive notice of Covid-19’s highly contagious, transmittable, and deadly course of illness, the defendant nursing home consciously disregarded the health and safety of its residents,” he added.
According to the complaint, Tribble was born on Aug. 4, 1938, and was admitted to the long-term care facility in Lebanon in 2018.
Tribble’s clinical condition required supervision and assistance with daily activities, such as transfers, bed mobility, repositioning, ambulating and toileting. MacLaughlin claims Tribble would have also needed assistance with social distancing measures.
In early 2020, the complaint states that the nursing home staff began to show signs and symptoms of Covid-19. Lebanon Care Center allegedly instructed nursing staff to continue to report to work and care for the residents despite showing symptoms on March 9, 2020.
Then on May 7, 2020, Tribble was transported to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for treatment of her Covid-19 symptoms. At that time, “numerous residents had tested positive for Covid-19, and at least 10 residents died at about the time of Carol’s death.”
The complaint states that after contracting Covid-19, Tribble suffered multiple falls resulting in injuries, seizures, pressure ulcers, retaliation in the form of threats, verbal and mental abuse, attempted involuntary discharge, a poor quality of life, deterioration of her overall health, loss of dignity and self-respect and pain and suffering.
“Based on data collected from long-term care facilities across the country, as of May 22, 2020, 43 percent of all Covid-19 deaths in the US were residents of long-term care facilities, despite only comprising .62 percent of the nation’s population,” Darr wrote.
When the Covid-19 outbreak struck in 2020, the suit states that the defendants failed to provide health care services consistent with any guidance issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Specifically, the defendants allegedly failed to adhere to the appropriate number of beds, failed to properly apply personal protective equipment (PPE) and failed to conduct widespread, regular Covid-19 testing.
The suit states that Lebanon Care Center was a recipient of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement funds, which required the defendants to submit annual data to both Medicare and Medicaid. Reimbursement funds were allegedly received based on the level of acuity of the residents in the facility, incentivizing Lebanon Care Center to “maintain the highest possible occupancy level while minimizing patient care expenses …”
The plaintiff claims that the “vulnerable nature of the nursing home population combined with the inherent risks of congregate living in a healthcare setting, required aggressive efforts, procedures, and safeguards to limit exposure to prevent the spread of highly communicable respiratory illnesses, like Covid-19, within nursing homes.”
“At all times relevant, long-term skilled nursing facilities, like Lebanon Care Center, did not have any luxury to treat and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and specific outbreaks of the virus casually, as any failures in responses to Covid-19 in long-term care facilities have cascading, downstream and deadly consequences for elderly patient populations with known and documented underlying medical conditions, like Carol,” Darr wrote.
MacLaughlin claims the defendants failed to hire skilled, competent nursing staff and encouraged them to care for an “inappropriately large” number of patients each day without proper PPE.
The suit states that the defendants “were fundamentally responsible, and had a statutory duty under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, to develop and implement policies governing control of infections and communicable diseases so that nursing homes, like Lebanon Care Center, can continually be on guard to detect any rapidly and easily transmittable virus, disease, and illness, including, but not limited to, respiratory illnesses and other viruses by means of respiratory droplets.”
MacLaughlin seeks damages in excess of $50,000 for each count, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 22-LA-336