NEW YORK — A little after 1 in the afternoon, Aida Pabey got the call from the nursing home: Her mother was not going to make it. It was April 6, nearly four weeks after the state had barred all visitors to nursing homes, and Aida and her sister, Haydee, had been struggling to get even the most basic information about their mother. Was she eating? Had the coronavirus reached her part of the home?
Their mother, Elba, died that night. But it took the sisters nearly a month before they learned how bad things were at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan, where more than 100 residents have died, possibly the most pandemic deaths of any nursing home in the state. The home declined a request to discuss how the virus got in and how it overran measures to contain it. Audrey Waters, a spokeswoman for Isabella, said the home had followed all state guidelines in battling the virus and informing families, adding: “We have worked tirelessly to prevent this deadly and ferocious virus from spreading in our nursing home, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to continue to limit its spread and protect our residents and heroic staff.
Six years ago, things got difficult. Elba would wander from the house, or get confused and call 911 to say someone was hurting her. One time she went out carrying a knife. She was just 65 or 66, but she needed more care than Aida could give her.Families of residents from that time, including the Pabey sisters, describe the home as a relatively nurturing environment, filled with dedicated staff.
Family visits are a crucial part of any nursing home. They provide essential emotional care and relieve the staff of time-consuming tasks. Without visitors, Isabella’s already-stretched staff had more work to do, and the virus multiplied their duties — more washing, more arranging video calls with family, more labor-intensive meal service, as homes ended group meals.
Waters, the spokeswoman at Isabella, said that the home always had enough protective gear, and that it followed Health Department guidelines for conserving PPE. The Pabey sisters were also unaware that residents and staff were getting sick, but video calls arranged by the staff gave them pause. They could see their mother’s roommate wandering around the room, sometimes touching their mother or her things, also without a mask.
By then, the virus was spreading within the home, according to the two nurses. “They kept it private for various reasons,” one said. Because the home had very limited access to testing, administrators could not tell which residents or staff members had the virus and were spreading it.