Troy Clawson didn’t get the chance to properly say goodbye to his mother, Katherine Becker, who he said died days after she tested positive for COVID-19 following an outbreak at her nursing home in Moses Lake.
Grant County health officials say the outbreak started after some staff members attended a 300-person “superspreader” wedding near Ritzville last month that has since led to dozens of infections.
“The care facility was telling me she had pneumonia but then it was later on that they finally told me she has the coronavirus,” said Clawson, who told KIRO 7 his mother was taken to a hospital last month where she died the day after her 69th birthday. “It sucks.”
Clawson said he’s struggled to get answers about the deadly outbreak from Lake Ridge Center of Moses Lake, where he said his mother lived for several months before her death.
The facility did not immediately respond to KIRO 7′s request for comment Friday.
“Come back to the facility and spreads through the whole facility. That’s ridiculous,” said Clawson. “And they feel like they have no accountability for it.”
As of Thursday, Grant County health officials said the outbreak at that facility had grown to 65 residents, 12 staff members and included 15 deaths.
“It’s our community that’s bringing it into these facilities,” said Grant County Health District Administrator Theresa Adkinson in an interview with KREM. “It’s not the facility’s fault that they’re dealing with what they’re dealing with.”
The Grant County Health District said several staffers at the Lake Ridge Center who self-identified as attending the November 7th Ritzville-area wedding then worked at the nursing home while unknowingly contagious.
“They care for all residents of a facility so it will not be known which individual cases or deaths are tied to the staff however the outbreak occurred at two facilities after the wedding occurred,” said the health district in a Thursday news release. An additional nursing home death at an Ephrata facility can also be directly linked to an attendee of the wedding, county health officials said.
Cox Media Group
