COVID-19 regulations imposed by the Whitmer administration have prevented families from seeing their loved ones who reside in nursing homes. | stock photo
COVID-19 regulations imposed by the Whitmer administration have prevented families from seeing their loved ones who reside in nursing homes. | stock photo
A Michigan family blames overreaching COVID-19 orders, state-imposed isolation and neglect for causing the decline and death of their father, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.
When 82-year-old William Hall Jr. died at a nursing home last August, his official cause of death was attributed to sepsis. He was also suffering from dementia and various other conditions.
His family alleges that the state’s COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting him from receiving visitors caused his ailments to worsen, ultimately leading to his death, while also allowing his deteriorating condition to be hidden from loved ones.
In response to the outbreak of the coronavirus last March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer implemented orders prohibiting nursing home patients from receiving visitors for almost three weeks. Hall’s family says that the only way they could contact him was by telephone or seeing him through a nursing home window.
Hall’s son, William Hall III, says that it was during this time of isolation that his father’s health began to seriously decline, which made phone communication increasingly difficult. Hall adds that his father was neglected by nursing home staff during his isolation, causing him to develop tennis-ball-sized bedsore wounds
“The last time I got to hug him was in February,” Hall told Michigan Capitol Confidential. “Until I got to hug him when he was in the hospital unconscious. I should have been able to hug him every week.”
Health care experts across the nation have warned that COVID-19 restrictions isolating nursing home patients could have dangerous consequences on the residents whom they are supposed to protect. Isolation can lead to loneliness and despair, worsening residents’ existing conditions.
Hall blames Whitmer and the nursing home, Medilodge of Milford, for the harm suffered by his father in his final days. He has filed a complaint with state nursing home regulators and was recently told that Medilodge of Milford will be cited for violating health care standards.
In October, guidelines were relaxed, allowing nursing home residents to have scheduled 15-minute visits with visitors who had recently undergone a COVID-19 screening. In November, these restrictions were put back into place in response to a surge in new coronavirus cases in Michigan.
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