Leitner Varughese Warywoda on The Today Show and NBC News fighting for NY nursing home victims
Leitner Varughese Warywoda was featured on The Today Show and NBC News fighting for the families of more than 12,000 nursing home residents who died in New York nursing homes from COVID.
Thank you to New York State Attorney General Letitia James for bringing to light the failure of NY nursing homes to protect their residents, which led to the deaths of over 12K vulnerable people. This brings us one step closer to getting justice for these grieving families.
https://www.today.com/video/nursing-home-deaths-in-new-york-were-undercounted-new-report-says-100213829758?fbclid=IwAR1zoFZIvSyvx7IFYSFLA4gCBmwAKjtDD1fGTzvCSNPaAssEcNxkdf-HQGs
www.lvlawny.com
Here is a full transcript of the report on NBC’s Today show:
8:05 AM ET
WILLIE GEIST: Now to a scathing new report out of New York, accusing the state of undercounting the number of COVID deaths in nursing homes. NBC’s Kristen Dahlgren joins us with a closer look. Kristen, good morning.
KRISTEN DAHLGREN: Good morning, Willie. So we know what happened in nursing homes early on in the pandemic was tragic. But this morning, New York’s attorney general is saying it may have been much worse than we were told.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New York Underreported Nursing Home Deaths?; State Attorney General Releases Scathing New Report]
In a new report, the state’s attorney general saying New York may have underreported the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%.
JAMES SKOUFIS [D-NEW YORK STATE SENATOR]: The state had not counted, as of today, nursing home residents who died in hospitals. And we deserve to know the full scope of just how horrific this nightmare, this crisis was.
DAHLGREN: The 76-page report also blasts a March directive from Governor Andrew Cuomo, mandating nursing homes take in COVID patients to free up hospital beds. Adding, some of the facilities were unprepared for the order and failed to comply with protocols, like isolating infected patients. Vivian Rivera Zayas lost her mom, Anna, who was recovering from knee surgery at a care facility.
VIVIAN RIVERA ZAYAS: Never would I have imagined that as soon as the doors were closed, that my mother would have passed away two days before she was supposed to be home.
DAHLGREN: Her attorney, Brett Leitner, represents more than a hundred families with similar stories.
BRETT LEITNER: Nursing homes knew about a COVID-positive resident and was still having them in the day room, in the elevators, without masks, and just in direct contact with the other elderly nursing home residents.
DAHLGREN: Governor Cuomo has not commented on the report, but in the past has said that he was following federal guidelines. He spoke to Savannah last June.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO [D-NY]: What we did here in New York is nothing different than what the federal government put out as guidance for every state. Yes, people died in nursing homes, Savannah.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Was that a mistake?
CUOMO: No, look, if you look at how many people died in nursing homes in New York compared to other states, we actually have a lower percentage of people who died in nursing homes.
DAWN BEST: It should never have happened.
DAHLGREN: For Dawn Best, who says her mom died of neglect while her nursing home was overrun with COVID, she hopes the report brings accountability. For her, it’s much more than numbers.
BEST: New York State failed my mother and failed thousands of people’s mothers and fathers.
DAHLGREN: This morning, the state health commissioner is taking issue with the accusation of an undercount. He says the state has always counted nursing home residents who died in hospitals separately. If you add them all up, Willie, those who died in nursing homes, in hospitals, and those that haven’t been confirmed yet but are suspected, it is more than 12,000, not the 6,000 that’s officially on the books.
GEIST: It is a maddening report for so many families in this state. Kristen Dahlgren, thanks so much.