The families of 10 residents who died and five residents still living at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center sued the nursing home’s leaders on Wednesday for what they deem a “reckless” handling of the covid-19 outbreak, which has killed at least 73 residents of the Beaver County facility.

“They show clear evidence of poor infection control, poor training, poor supervision, transparency problems, cross-contamination, lack of supplies — it goes on and on,” said attorney Bob Daley, representing one of three firms that teamed up to file the litigation. Attorneys believe this suit marks the first of its kind statewide: one against a nursing home for its response to covid-19.

The lawsuit against Brighton Rehab’s ownership and medical director contends that the facility’s leaders are guilty of “managerial and operational negligence, carelessness, recklessness and willful and wanton conduct,” according to the 284-page complaint filed Wednesday morning in the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas. The lawsuit alleges that a litany of deficiencies — inadequate staffing, ineffective management and substandard quality of care violating state and federal rules and guidance — dated to the nursing home breaching its duty to care for its residents prior to the pandemic, which then exacerbated existing problems.

In response to the lawsuit, officials representing the nursing home issued a statement that said, “Throughout the covid-19 pandemic, Brighton has worked to closely follow the guidance of governmental health officials.”

“Right now, the facility’s sole focus remains on ensuring the health and well-being of all residents and staff,” said the statement attributed to “Brighton Facility Management.”

Among allegations supported by Department of Health inspection reports is that Brighton Rehab failed to follow proper covid-19 safety and infection control procedures, including not separating sick residents from healthy ones and staffers not washing hands between working with residents.

“Pandemic or not, infections are a major source of problems in nursing homes. You need to have an effective infection control program,” Daley said. “You probably can’t stop all cases, but you certainly can stop outbreaks like you see at Brighton.”

“If you look at other Beaver County nursing homes, you see very, very few cases. Many large nursing homes have very few cases and they’ve been able to contain them. They cohort appropriately, they contact-trace,” Daley said. “We think that one of the reasons for the outbreak at Brighton was they never had before the pandemic an effective infection control program, and then once the pandemic started and once the outbreak started there, the lack of that program was only accentuated by their actions.”

Throughout the complaint, several plaintiffs describe their relatives being left in rooms with covid-positive roommates, in addition to other lax isolation and quarantine procedures and poor medical care. The lawsuit also cites allegations of dishonesty and secrecy, with family members often unable to get a hold of staff for updates on their loved ones. Some were told their relative was recovering, only to learn they died of covid-19 days or weeks later.

“I will continue to fight for Kim and be her voice,” said plaintiff Jamie Worthy, whose sister, Kim McCoy-Warford, 64, was in the four-bed room where Brighton Rehab’s first coronavirus case was identified March 25. Her sister was not isolated even after she contracted a fever, then was deemed a recovered patient and allowed to interact with staffers in the halls before dying of the disease on April 18, with Worthy and other family left watching her take her last breaths via a smartphone. “The patients there do not deserve the treatment that they are receiving. The ones that have gone on certainly did not deserve to die the way that they did.”

In addition to Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services — the private corporate entity that owns and operates Brighton Rehab — the lawsuit names as a defendant Dr. David Thimons, who has served as Brighton Rehab’s medical director since 2012 and is charged with upholding care standards.

“It is not brought against Brighton’s ‘frontline’ staff who provided direct care to residents,” the lawsuit says.

Staffers “were placed in the untenable position of having to care for hundreds of residents through a pandemic while being untrained, unsupervised, understaffed and unsupported by Brighton,” the lawsuit says. “Brighton failed to provide these caregivers with appropriate personal protective equipment and left them to do the best they could in the dangerous environment Brighton’s administration crafted.”

At least 73 residents at Brighton Rehab died of covid-19, ranking the nursing home at the fifth-highest death toll in a long-term care facility statewide and among the deadliest in the nation, state and federal data show.

The nursing home assumed all of more than 400 of its residents had the coronavirus disease in early April. As of last week, state data continues to show that the facility has recorded at least 334 infections among residents.

“They could have prevented the vast majority of those infections had they followed the proper infection protocols, which they didn’t do,” said attorney Pete Giglione. “So the goal is to get some accountability for the residents and their families who suffered as a result of the management and ownership’s inadequacies at that facility, and to hopefully get some justice for them.

“The goal of lawsuits like this is always to change things, to make them better, that’s the whole point of holding management and owners accountable.”

Many of the wrongful death plaintiffs describe instances of poor and sometimes conflicting communication with Brighton staff, along with questionable decision-making within the facility. Mark Lanton, for instance, alleges that he still hasn’t received a phone call from Brighton to inform him of the death of his 93-year-old mother, Gloria Lanton. According to the complaint, Mark Lanton learned she died only when her fiduciary contacted him to offer condolences.

After that conversation, Mark Lanton reportedly called Brighton several times to ask how she was doing. Each time, he alleges, staff told him his mother was “doing well,” but they were having trouble locating a cordless phone shared by dozens of patients per floor. She would call him back, he was told, when they found the phone, the complaint says.

Another patient, Nancy Kemerer, 70, was never sent to the hospital even after her family repeatedly asked. Tracey Mineo, Kemerer’s daughter, alleges Brighton staff told her Heritage Valley Beaver was not accepting covid-19 patients, and Kemerer would therefore remain at Brighton despite her daughter’s request. Mineo called the hospital separately and learned that was not true, the complaint says, but Brighton staff insisted Kemerer would not receive different treatment away from the facility. The complaint alleges Brighton “refused” to send Kemerer to the hospital.

Mineo eventually connected with Brighton’s medical director, defendant Thimons, who allegedly told her “he wanted to try to continue treating her mother before sending her to the hospital.” He started IV fluids and breathing treatments.

But the next day, the complaint alleges, all of Kemerer’s treatments were halted and Mineo was told “her mother was dying and she needed to accept it.” Kemerer died May 15.

Five plaintiffs are living residents who contracted and have since recovered from covid-19. According to the complaint, they still fear reinfection and medical care standards given the continued uncertainty of transmission, understaffing and other issues that persist inside Brighton.

“They’re fighting to protect themselves in their home,” Daley said.

Shelby Galton, 41, entered Brighton in March 2019 due to intellectual and physical disabilities. Her close friend, Kristine Skal, was Galton’s contact person. Skal alleges in the complaint that Galton was kept in a room with another resident who had tested positive for covid-19; and at one point, Skall was told by Brighton staff that because more than 100 residents had tested positive, there would be no more testing.

Instead, all floors of the facility would “shelter in place” and all residents were assumed infected.

Judith Marie, daughter to 79-year-old Dorothy Umstead, said she received anonymous text messages in April from a Brighton staff member, informing her that her mother was also rooming with a covid-positive patient but had not been removed from the four-person room.

The text messages, included in the complaint, warned Marie that Brighton administrators were not being truthful about patients isolating or the extent of the outbreak in the facility. The anonymous staffer said Marie was being lied to because she’d previously spoken to news reporters.

“It’s everywhere,” one text reads. “… Get her out of here.”

The complaint calls out Brighton for not reporting accurate covid-19 data throughout the pandemic, noting that the facility has admitted it was, for a time, omitting hospitalized patients from its total case count. In April, Brighton stopped reporting numbers publicly. The complaint also describes an exodus of staffers who left in the spring, citing unsafe working conditions and inadequate resources such as not enough protective gear.

An inspection by the state Department of Health in April resulted in several citations for failing to meet basic health guidelines, including providing soap and properly storing linens. A second inspection report in May found more than four dozen violations related to infection control deficiencies and insufficient management that the state concluded had resulted in residents in all nine units being placed in “immediate jeopardy.”

“The Department of Health did a good job at pointing out the errors they made, which were profound,” Giglione said. “I think that when we start litigating the lawsuit we will find more that the Department of Health did not find.”

The lawsuit is being brought by three firms, Robert Peirce & Associates, Massa Butler Giglione and McMillen Urick Tocci & Jones.

A Tribune-Review investigation into Brighton Rehab, published Aug. 9, recounted a litany of infection control and other deficiencies and violations that happened during the pandemic, as well as others that have persisted for years. The Trib found those problems were exacerbated by a lack of communication, transparency and oversight from hard-to-find owners and by ongoing attempts to silence nursing home employees as well as residents and their family members from voicing concerns.

RELATED: Veil of silence — As outbreak spun out of control, Brighton Rehab ownership remained mum. It still does.

Three days later, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told the Trib his office had launched a criminal investigation into Brighton Rehab, saying he was “deeply troubled” by reports of conditions and practices at the nursing home.

In early September, the FBI served search warrants at the facility in connection to an investigation involving state Attorney General’s Office, Internal Revenue Service and Health and Human Services division of the Office of Inspector General.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services conducted its own investigation of Brighton Rehab and sent investigators to the facility in May. The results of that investigation have not been made public.

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Plaintiffs

Glenn Oscar Gill, from Ambridge

82 years old

Resident of Brighton since Sept. 25, 2019

Kenneth Wright, from Mariana

57 years old

Resident of Brighton since June 3, 2019

Shelby Galton, from Beaver

41 years old

Resident of Brighton since March 2019

Dorothy Umstead, from Sewickley

79 years old

Resident of Brighton since March 2019

Lucille Williams, from Leetsdale

74 years old

Resident of Brighton since April 2019

Kim L. McCoy-Warford, from Aliquippa

Died April 18, 2020, at the age of 64

Gloria Lanton, from Ambridge

Died April 23, 2020, at the age of 93

Marion Young, from Beaver

Died April 22, 2020, at the age of 85

Rebecca Joy Vankirk, from Rochester

Died May 9, 2020, at the age of 68

Earl Denbow, Jr., from Beaver Falls

Died April 1, 2020, at the age of 73

Virginia Eldridge, from Pittsburgh

Died April 17, 2020, at the age of 79

Nancy Kemerer, from Porterville

Died May 15, 2020, at the age of 70

Ala Mazzocca, from Aliquippa

Died April 13, 2020, at the age of 91

Joseph “Randy” Clavelli, from New Castle

Died April 15, 2020, at the age of 66

Shirley M. Mike, from Monaca

Died April 15, 2020, at the age of 95

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