Emotions are high for many Connecticut families after learning their loved ones must be moved from a Wallingford nursing home.
The state made the rare move to order the transfer of patients after determining an ongoing failure to correct serious health and safety issues at the Quinnipiac Valley Center, findings they say are “serious enough to risk imminent harm to life.”
Gregory Brooks is one of 94 residents who have to be moved.
“Sometimes we’re treated like furniture. They move us around where they want to move us around,” Brooks said.
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He has lived at the facility for eight years and says he has no idea where he’ll live next.
“This is like heartbreaking. There’s a few residents in here, I don’t know how they’re going to cope. They have been here for most of their adult life. They’re not mentally able to mix back into society or make friends or feel comfortable again,” he said.
Brooks has been the president of the council representing residents of the Quinnipiac Valley Center. He says the facility has been short-staffed, but he says that’s a nationwide problem. He was shocked when the news broke Monday about the safety concerns.
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“No I didn’t see that, and like I said, I’m the council president. I would have heard about these things or I would have found out about them one way or another,” Brooks said.
Connecticut's Department of Public Health ordered the immediate transfer of residents because of safety concerns, citing problems with administering medications and significant infection control failures. DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani says the death of two patients in January sparked their investigation and only revealed more problems over time. The state says they gave the agency ample time to correct problems.
Tuesday, family members, like Karyn Hansen of North Branford, were seen packing up loved ones’ items in their cars. Unlike Brooks, Hansen is less surprised about the shutdown. She says her mom has been living at the facility since August, after suffering a stroke early last year.
“Since she’s been here, I’ve had a complaint every day, but this week they called me at 8:30-9:30 at night that they forgot to give my mother her meds, which is heart medication, diabetic medication, really vital critical for her life medications,” Hansen said.
Quinnipiac Valley Health issued this statement from spokesperson Lori Mayer:
"Quinnipiac Valley Center is committed to the safety and well-being of our patients and residents. Recently, Quinnipiac Valley Center received deficiencies related to surveys conducted at the center and a temporary manager was assigned to the Center by the Connecticut Department of Health. At this time, the Center is currently cooperating with the temporary manager regarding the discharge of all patients and residents to other local facilities."
Hansen says this closure is a blessing in disguise for her mother, who can’t speak up for herself.
“My mother can’t speak. I’m her rottweiler. I will do anything for my mother because she can’t do anything and I want to speak for anyone in the building that doesn’t have someone to speak for them,” Hansen said.
She learned this afternoon that her mother was accepted to a home the family has had her on a waiting list for, for some time.
Meanwhile, Brooks can’t believe there hasn’t been more transparency or time to move out of their longtime homes, as the clock ticks down for his departure.
“This is like total shock. It’s like the Titanic and all of a sudden you wake everybody up and you say, 'Oh the ship is sinking.'”
The Department of Public Health says they are working with several other agencies to locate nursing homes with beds for the residents.
