As the coronavirus continues its deadly march through Southern California nursing homes, the Lakeview Terrace skilled nursing facility in Los Angeles has been illegally “dumping” old and disabled residents onto the street and into homes that are not equipped to care for them, according to the city attorney.
Without notifying his family first, an 88-year old man with dementia was transferred from the Westlake nursing home to a boarding house in Van Nuys, only to be found wandering the streets profoundly confused a day later, according to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles this week by City Atty. Mike Feuer.
Another resident with HIV who was dumped on the street instead of being provided the hospice care he needed wound up cowering in a friend’s backyard, hoping that would keep him safe from the pandemic, according to the complaint.
The “sustained” and “intentional” misconduct by Lakeview Terrace administrators comes at a time when nursing homes have an incentive to dump long-term residents, for whom they are paid little, to make room for COVID-19 patients, for whom they are paid much more, Feuer wrote in the lawsuit.
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