'Taken too soon': Sister believes nursing home responsible for brother's COVID-19 death

May 7—SOUTHERN INDIANA — For the past year, Debra McCoskey-Reisert has been trying to make sense of her brother's death from COVID-19, a death she believed could have been prevented if not for inattention by the nursing facility where he lived.

Robert McCoskey, a 55-year-old man with intellectual disabilities and diabetes, died at Wedgewood Healthcare Center April 29, 2020. His death came about three weeks after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, and four days after his sister said the family made multiple calls requesting he be hospitalized.

"He was definitely taken too soon," McCoskey-Reisert said. "I can't accept his death because I feel like he should have had another 20 or 30 years. His life was cut short by both the pandemic and what I believe was neglect."

McCoskey-Reisert said her brother, who she called Bobby, had lived at Wedgewood for about a year before the pandemic hit last spring. Initially thought of as a stop between a hospital stay and an independent living facility, she said her brother had become content at the Clarksville facility.

Early into the public health emergency, Wedgewood had gone on lockdown to protect residents, as longterm care facilities across the state had. But in some places, the disease still took hold.

On April 27 of last year, two days before McCoskey died, the News and Tribune reported an outbreak at the facility with 65 cases between residents and staff that had been identified in the previous few days.

McCoskey-Reisert said her brother was taken to Baptist Health Floyd April 8 for what she believes were COVID-related issues, and the following day confirmed positive for the disease. McCoskey was hospitalized for several weeks, and his sister said that while there, the family got daily reports on his oxygen level and temperature.

On April 23, he seemed to be doing better.

"He had gone three days without a fever, he was very much himself and we thought he got to the other side of it," McCoskey-Reisert said. "He was dismissed from the hospital and sent back to Wedgewood."

She said she was unable to reach her brother the following day because he didn't have a phone in his room. On Saturday, April 25, she said they talked several hours and "he was not himself," she said. "He was just not talking normal and I just knew something was wrong. He kept saying he messed up. I said 'Bobby, you didn't mess up anything.'"

McCoskey-Reisert said she wondered if her brother blamed himself for getting COVID. While on that call, she said a staff member got on the phone and told her she needed to get her brother out of there.

McCoskey-Reisert called another line to request her brother be taken to the hospital. She said that staff member told her they would contact the doctor and call an ambulance. After an hour and a half of no update, McCoskey-Reisert said she called back and spoke with a different person, who had no knowledge of the previous call.

"She told me the same thing: 'We'll call the doctor, call an ambulance, we'll call you back,'" McCoskey-Reisert said. "Well it's been a year and neither of those women have called me back."

A third time, McCoskey-Reisert stayed on the line as their mother called and talked with a staff member who assured them that if McCoskey needed to go to the hospital, they would make sure it happened.

She said she didn't know if McCoskey was his own power of attorney or not, but that even if he was, she felt that the last time she talked to him, her brother was not in a position to make decisions for himself. Her son, Nick Trotter, was able to visit his uncle every day for those last four after he came back from the hospital.

Through the window, Trotter said he could see his uncle's condition worsening and said he seemed "spacey."

"It was a little frustrating being stuck on the other side of a piece of glass not being able to help," he said. "It was progressively getting a little worse every day — you could see it. He was having trouble breathing and it was hard to watch."

The day after McCoskey's family requested he be taken back to the hospital, his sister said she was unable to reach anyone at the facility. The day after that, she was able to reach someone and ask if they could take a phone to her brother so they could keep in contact with him, which they weren't able to do. That day, he was found dead in his room, she said, with his cause of death later listed as COVID-19 with pneumonia. She thinks that if they had taken him to the hospital, he could be here today.

"I don't think anybody knew what the hell to do, however those three phone calls could have saved his life," McCoskey-Reisert said.

Beth DeFalco, a spokeswoman for Wedgewood, said that due to patient privacy laws, she could not comment on a specific patient in Wedgewood's care. But she said that Wedgewood had followed federal health guidance to help keep residents and staff safe.

"Throughout the pandemic, Wedgewood has followed all CDC guidelines and protocol, which evolved as we learned more about virus transmission," she said in a statement sent to the News and Tribune.

"Staff has always been provided with the required [personal protective equipment.] Unfortunately, infection rates were high throughout all of Clark County in April 2020 and rapid testing was not as readily available anywhere across the country then. We now test all patients and staff twice weekly."

McCoskey-Reisert said she has filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's office following her brother's death and is awaiting an update.

She remembers her brother with love, and wonders what could have been. She said the ongoing pandemic and signs of it everywhere is a constant reminder to her that he is gone.

"He was super-generous and had the kindest heart," she said. "When he died, there were about 18,000 people who had died and now there are over half a million. I'm just so worried that he's just going to be a number to people and not a person who had a great life and who was very loved.

"I think that's a fear a lot of people have."

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