Some folks believe it’s a matter of life or death.
Families are outraged at the condition residents of a Wayne County nursing home are forced to live in. WHEC has been investigating Sodus Rehabilitation and Nursing Center for more than a year; and that investigation has resulted in a number of one-on-one interviews, as well as exclusive video showcasing the horrific conditions.
That facility has three times the number of health and safety violations compared to the state average; and family members say the situation is getting worse by the day.
“I’m all my mom has, I really am… in this world, I’m all my mother has,” Lekeisha Denman-Duvall told WHEC. Her mother is non-verbal and has been a patient at the facility for the past year. Denman-Duvall says there have been problems and that she has been ignored.
Altogether, WHEC has heard from around a dozen families who’ve had or have loved ones at the facility.
Last November, Dave Super found his father dead in bed when he arrived for a visit.
Another man told WHEC that his wife had lost 30-40 lbs since being at the facility. Mostly due to the food being served to residents. During the summer, while conditions were most-oppressive – an air conditioning unit went down at the facility – prompting Joseph Foss to call local media with his concerns.
WHEC requested updated information and inspection data for the facility from May until September of this year but a spokesman for NYSDOH said, “ensuring the well-being of all nursing home residents is of the utmost importance of the state health department. The state health department is investigating a complaint about the quality of care at Sodus Rehabilitation & Nursing Center. As this remains an active investigation, we cannot comment further.”
Denman-Duvall told WHEC that when she spoke with the administrator she was told a lot of the issues stem from a staffing shortage, “she said, I’m not trying to make excuses but we’re understaffed and my staff is burnt out. Okay, I get why they’re burnt out because you’re understaffed but that’s not my mother’s problem and that’s not everybody else in here’s problem,” Denman-Duvall says.
The company has not responded to WHEC’s request for information or comment.
