Bucks County COVID-19 Deaths: Area Braces for a Projected Increase of Coronavirus Deaths in Nursing Homes
According to a Doylestown Patch article, 8 people perished from COVID-19 in Bucks County, PA, on April 15. Seven of them were residents of the county’s long-term care facilities.
The Bucks County coronavirus-related nursing home deaths reflect a large—and frightening—trend in nursing homes around the nation, in which the virus is rapidly taking hold within long-term care facility walls, afflicting America’s most vulnerable citizens, the often health-compromised elderly. One home in neighboring New Jersey recently lost 26 people to COVID-19. Each of the seven people who died in Bucks County nursing homes on April 15 were over 65 and had underlying health conditions.
Bucks County Health Department director David Damsker reported that a sizable percentage of Bucks’ new COVID-19 cases come from people living in group homes, and that about half of those who perished from the coronavirus in the county were residents of nursing homes.
Damsker remarked that, despite the flattening of the curve elsewhere, deaths will likely increase within congregate living facilities, which include prisons and behavioral health facilities as well as long-term care facilities and nursing homes, and which are characterized by people living in close proximity to one another.
In a related Bucks County nursing home COVID-19 article in the Bucks County Courier Times, the director of emergency management for Bucks, Scott T. Forster, said that no plans exist to evacuate residents of nursing facilities despite the risk, as moving patients may pose even more harmful risks to them.
Over 180 persons living in 31 of Bucks County long-term care facilities are estimated to have been infected, and 29 residents have perished from COVID-19, says the Courier Times. Across Pennsylvania, 324 nursing home patients have died from the virus as of April 15, comprising nearly half of the state’s deaths.
The names of homes with virus cases have not been released by county or state officials. Damsker has advised concerned family members to contact their loved one’s facility in order to obtain information about virus cases.
How Safe is Your Loved One’s Nursing Home?
In such an uncertain time as this, ensuring the safety of your loved one’s Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing home is crucial, both in matters of hygiene and in every other safety matter. If you have concerns about the quality of a Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey facility or if you suspect neglect or abuse has taken place at the Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing home where your loved one is residing, please contact nursing home abuse attorney Brian P. Murphy to discover your legal rights and options.
