Wanaque Center Reaches $ 6 Million Settlement With NJ Adenovirus Families

Families of children who fell victim to a virus outbreak in 2018 at a New Jersey medical facility recently reached a $ 6 million settlement with its former owners, according to a new report.

After filing a complaint in 2020, the 13 families of children who died or were seriously ill from an adenovirus that had spread to the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation agreed to a settlement of $ 6.2 million at one point. given over the past month, NJ.com reported On Monday.

“It was a siren call for what the world should prepare for when the pandemic hits,” Paul da Costa, lawyer for the 13 families, told the publication. “It showed that all long-term facilities need to take their duty and obligations even more seriously and remember that this is something that should never be betrayed.”

Eleven children have died and 25 have fallen ill at the pediatric nursing home from an adenovirus that has spread due to poor hygiene and protocols, investigators found. New Jersey Department of Health said he was informed of the adenovirus outbreak at the 227-bed Haskell Nursing Home on October 9, 2018.

Later that month, a worker at the New Jersey Rehab Center says the “dirty” rooms of the establishment, old and rusty equipment, mold and poor maintenance were partly to blame for the virus outbreak. But high-level staff turned a blind eye to employee concerns over the squalid conditions and only cared when health officials were about to inspect the facility, the worker told the era.

“[These patients] deserve to be taken care of, ”said the tipster. “They don’t even get a quarter of what they pay for. “

The strain of adenovirus that spread in the New Jersey nursing home, type 7, “is associated with community lifestyles and known to cause serious illness,” the Department of Health said. New Jersey in a 2018 press release.

Online check-ins has shown that the center is regularly inspected, and in August 2018, six health gaps were cited, including a failure to “provide and implement an infection prevention and control program”.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, washing your hands with soap and water, avoiding touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with dirty hands, and avoiding close contact with sick people can help slow down. the spread of adenovirus. When a team of health officials visited the medical facility to investigate, they said they found “minor hand washing faults.”

The respiratory disease epidemic – which normally causes mild symptoms resembling those of the common cold, sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea and acute respiratory illness – infected several children with a weakened immune system, causing serious health problems. Families claimed in the 2019 lawsuit that staff and owner negligence caused the deaths of disabled children, according to the report.

Among those who died was Dorcase Dolcin, a 4-year-old girl, whose mother, Modeline Auguste, told NJ.com of the settlement: “No amount of money is ever enough to cope with what these families have lived. ”

The New Jersey facility was sold in 2019 to be named.