3 March 2021: How Cuomo's Gift of COVID Legal Immunity to Nursing Homes Became Fatal Mistake

Andrew Cuomo's Nursing Home Shield Means 'They Got Away with Killing Our Mom'

The tragic situation described in this article became all too common thanks to the COVID policies implemented by the Cuomo administration adopted for New York's nursing homes and assisted care facilities.

For Vivian Rivera-Zayas and her family, the troubles began in January 2020 after her 78-year-old mother Ana Martinez experienced complications from knee-replacement surgery and doctors sent her to Our Lady of Consolation, a nursing home in West Islip, New York, for a few weeks of therapy.

Ana was supposed to return to her Williamsburg apartment by the end of the month, but her discharge was postponed again and again. Then came New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's March 12 order locking down nursing homes in response to COVID-19. Without daily visits from her family or much access to the Spanish-language newscasts the Puerto Rican native preferred, Ana had little understanding of how the pandemic was spreading across the country and zeroing in on elderly care facilities.

At the end of March, Our Lady of Consolation staff told Ana's daughter Vivian over the phone that it would be promptly discharging Ana, even though by that point she had developed stomach pains, a severe cough, and difficulty breathing. Struggling to figure out what was happening, Vivian began to receive vague and conflicting updates from facility employees every time she called. First they assured her Ana was healthy, then suggested they would be discharging her with an oxygen tank to help her breathe.

Finally, on the day Ana was supposed to return home, the nursing home transferred her to the hospital. The doctors there soon informed her family that Ana had a collapsed lung, and then reported her kidneys had failed. Two days later, on April 1, Vivian received a call from the ICU that caused her to collapse onto the floor, crying out to God. Her mother was gone, having died from COVID-19.

The rest of the story becomes more tragic, as the nursing home has been shielded from liability in failing to provide adequate care for Ana Martinez. Please do read the whole thing.