by Jasmine Brooks
Nearly 20,000 Pennsylvanians have died from COVID-19 in less than a year, with seniors accounting for half of those deaths.
We're getting a firsthand account of what happened inside some of the nursing and personal care facilities from a nurse who says, she witnessed it.
"No one should ever die alone," says Margaret Barajas of the Pa Department of Aging.
Pennsylvania's nursing and personal care facilities; ground zero for COVID-19.
"The amount of overall death and destruction I’ve seen has been tremendous."
The deadly virus has already taken the lives of more than 10,000 seniors.
"By the time they found maybe one or two people who had positive tests, within a day or two those numbers doubled, tripled sometimes quadrupled."
A candid conversation with a nurse who has asked us to conceal her identity to protect her job. She's worked the floors of nearly ten-facilities in Pennsylvania, witnessing hundreds of patients trying to survive the quick and aggressive virus.
"Describe the worst situation that you've witnessed," asks CBS 21’s Jasmine Brooks.
"Honestly, there were some days where in a 12-hour shift there would be 10 to 15 people that would die. That was just hard as a nurse to watch day in and day out.”
"When COVID broke out around March in these nursing homes, were the nursing facilities prepared, Brooks asks.
"No," says Barajas.
"There are fingers to be pointed at systems that have failed our elders over and over again," she adds.
Margaret Barajas says, this pandemic has revealed the challenges that have existed in long term care facilities for years.
"Everything from facility design and structural limitations to maximize profits. Many homes still have four residents to a room," she explains.
"What were they lacking the most," Brooks asks our undercover nurse.
"I would say the knowledge of what to do. There would be no direction for anybody. You would show up at a facility and the director of nursing or anybody that probably should've been more prepared and have the knowledge really didn't know what to do, didn't know where to start, didn't know where to direct people where to go," she replies.
"What was the biggest complaint you were getting from family members on the outside?"
"That their family members were unfortunately isolated, which was absolutely true."
"Many of them are in rooms with no television, no telephone, no way to connect to the outside world," Barajas adds.
"If you had Dr. Levine in front of you what would you ask of her? Or tell her," asks Brooks.
"That they just did it wrong," the nurse says.
We went to the Department of Health to get some answers.
"What went wrong? Again, I understand it was a pandemic, unpresented times, but what went wrong," asks Brooks.
"How could anyone have truly been prepared for something of this magnitude and duration?" replies Keara Klinepeter with the Pa Department of Health.
Pennsylvania has now surpassed 60,000 resident cases.
"I am hoping that as we now move towards a brighter day with the vaccine on the horizon that we don't miss this opportunity to get better at this and to redesign and to bulldoze where necessary and start afresh," says Barajas.
"I personally was infected with COVID. It wasn't fun. I
was pretty sick for a while. Emotionally I will say this has taken a
greater toll. Emotionally, mentally, psychologically," she explains.
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