May 19, 2020

Suit filed against Kansas nursing home with 14 virus deaths

Posted May 19, 2020 4:21 PM
Brighton Gardens Senior Living Center in Prairie Village, Kansas- google image
Brighton Gardens Senior Living Center in Prairie Village, Kansas- google image

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — The family of an 88-year-old man who died in a COVID-19 outbreak at a suburban Kansas City nursing home has sued.

The wrongful death suit that was filed Monday on behalf of the family of Gordan Grohman alleges that the staff at Brighton Gardens in Prairie Village, Kansas, failed to separate residents with COVID-19 symptoms from those without the virus. Grohman died May 1.

It’s the first such suit against the facility, where there have been 76 positive cases and 14 deaths.

“This is not just a failure of one employee, one nurse or anything like that,” said attorney Rachel Stahle.

Similar suits have been filed against Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation, a Kansas City, Kansas, facility that is the site of 132 cases and 36 deaths.

A call to Brighton Gardens by KCUR seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

State officials reported 8,340 cases Monday, up by 454 from Friday, and 173 deaths. Johns Hopkins University reported 195 deaths.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and death.