MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman says she didn’t find out her father might have had COVID-19 until she saw his death certificate.
He was at a Memphis nursing home that was dealing with a coronavirus outbreak, according to the health department.
“He loved his family. He loved the church,” said Angela Lester.
She said her father’s death was sudden.
“He had been there since February,” said Lester.
Her father, 92-year-old Abner White, moved to Quince Nursing and Rehab in southeast Memphis, after he had a stroke and needed full-time care.
Weeks later, Lester says she was told her family could only visit once a week through a glass door due to the coronavirus.
“But the problem was that you couldn’t really hear because there was traffic. Because I was outside, you’ve got Quince right behind me,” said Lester.
Lester told WREG she was getting ready for her next visit, but instead she got a devastating call.
“Just got a call on May 11 that he had passed. That was it,” she said. “I was like why? What happened? What do you mean he died? What was wrong with him?”
She says she even asked if it was COVID, knowing the virus was spreading in Memphis.
“No. he just died. He was unresponsive. They called and tried to revive him. They called the paramedics and he’s gone,” she said.
White’s funeral was on May 23. Lester says they had an open casket as loved ones placed roses on his body and gave their final goodbyes.
Two weeks after the funeral, Lester says she turned on WREG News.
“I was like, Quince? That’s where my dad was. COVID? They had how many cases?” Lester said.
She told us that’s when she learned Quince was battling a coronavirus outbreak.
The health department reported it identified a COVID cluster, meaning at least two cases that are connected, at the facility on April 29, 10 days before White’s death.
At the time of our June 9 report, 19 people had died and dozens of patients and staff had been infected.
As of Thursday, health officials report 87 residents and 32 staff have tested positive at Quince Nursing and Rehab, and there have been 33 deaths.
Lester says she then took a closer look at the death certificate.
“I hadn’t even looked at it because I was going through emotional stress,” she said.
The death certificate from the state health department states White died on May 10 at Quince Nursing Home, and the cause was Respiratory Failure and suspected COVID-19.
If someone is suspected to have COVID, and that’s a contributing factor to the death, it would be counted within the numbers, said Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter.
“I was in shock. That’s when I started calling and asking them the questions. No one could give me any answers,” said Lester.
The Tennessee governor announced on April 29 all long-term care facilities and nursing homes must do mass COVID testing.
The state says Quince completed testing in June, after White’s death.
We reached out to Quince’s administrator about Lester’s father on June 17.
The next day, we received an email from an attorney stating he was now representing the nursing home.
While declining to address our specific questions about Lester’s father, he told us the facility “has followed all recommendations and guidelines issued by the CDC, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (or “CMS”), and the state and local health departments.”
He went on to say staff “is properly supplied with personal protective equipment” and it has “conducted regular in-servicing as to how to don and doff PPE.”
Effective May 8, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ordered nursing homes to report “to residents, their representatives, and families of residents in facilities” when there’s a confirmed infection or “whenever three or more residents or staff with new onset of respiratory symptoms occur within 72 hours of each other.”
Quince’s attorney stated the facility “follows CMS guidelines anytime there is a change and that means every family is notified at least every week, and we are in regular communication with federal, state and local health officials.”
“Gone forever. There’s no coming back from this,” said Lester.
She said she misses her father and just wants to know more about his death.
“Would you want your parents to be done like this? Of course not,” she said.
When WREG first started our investigation, we reported federal inspectors visited Quince in February, a time when only 14 U.S. cases of COVID-19 had been identified nationwide by CDC. While no COVID cases were found at Quince, the report found several deficiencies posing potentially “minimal harm” including observed failures to follow infection and prevention control protocols.
The administrator of the nursing home said this month that local health inspectors visited the facility on May 26, completing a “focused Infection Control/COVID-19 Survey” and found no deficiencies with infection control procedures.
The state confirms there were a series of surveys conducted between late April and early June and found no deficiencies.
