Kimberly Peck says her dad, Vietnam veteran Vernon Peck, died of COVID-19 at JFK Medical Center on Easter morning. The 74-year-old, who was disabled by a stroke, had lived for nine years at the Menlo Park Veterans Home, where the virus killed 62 residents officially. But Kimberly Peck doesn’t trust that death toll.
“I don’t know if my dad is even counted in that number because he got tested at JFK. They did not test him at Menlo Park. They tested him at JFK and he died at JFK which means he was off their census for 24 hours,” Peck said.
Peck says she pleaded with administrators at Menlo Park to test her dad for COVID and keep him apart from infected residents but claims they didn’t. She knows the virus rampaged through New Jersey’s veterans homes causing staff shortages, but she says administrators at the facility failed.
“It falls on the facility to say, ‘Hey, we’re drowning and we need help. We have people that are not getting their basic needs met.’ It’s not about what the news and media is going perceive you as because these are peoples’ lives,” Peck said.
She’s among 50 families represented by attorney Paul da Costa.
“I think it is a case study in inept mismanagement across the board. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the administrators were up to the task. They were in over their head and the ones who have suffered are the residents and their family members,” Da costa said.
Glenn Osborne is a resident at the Menlo Park Veterans Home. The former Marine recently told Trenton lawmakers on Aug. 13 that he believes administrators tried to suppress the COVID death count.
“Many of these deaths were absolutely avoidable, in my humble opinion,” he said. “Many of the residents that died were written off as having pneumonia without even being tested and therefore not appropriately counted as COVID victims. Even in combat you want be counted where you died and how you died.”
Osborne, who’s president of the Menlo Park Veterans Home resident council, told lawmakers about poor infection control and how administrators ordered staff not to wear personal protective equipment because it might scare people. When he complained, threats of retaliation.
“I have been targeted by administration to the point where I was asked, ‘Do I want to continue living here?'” Osborne said.
Sen. Joe Vitale, who chaired the hearing, is pushing reform measures. He’s called for a federal investigation and the resignation of Menlo Park Veterans Home CEO Elizabeth Schiff-Heedles over mismanagement.
“One of the edicts from the CEO was, ‘Don’t wear the PPE because you’re going to frighten the residents.’ I just don’t understand that. What’s the alternative? Them to get sick and die? Which is what happened,” Vitale said.
New Jersey’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs says it fully supports its veterans home CEOs.
Two New Jersey congressmen called for the Paramus Veterans Home CEO to also resign.
Peck wants accountability.
“I believe the state dropped the ball. This is their facility,” she said. “I mean, we really let these people dow and that makes me mad.”
