Bridgeview Nursing Home Slapped With Coronavirus Death Lawsuit

CHICAGO – A long term care facility that emerged as a coronavirus hotspot amounting to 34 cases and 15 deaths, has been sued by a family over claims that the nursing home failed to meet infection control standards, resulting in the death of their husband and father from COVID-19.

The 52-page wrongful death suit was filed June 3 in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of Tina Meskill, the administrator for her deceased stepfather, James Zbonski. Named as the defendant is Bridgeview Health Care Center, 8100 S. Harlem Ave., which is accused of the “reckless and grossly negligent conduct” under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, that directly led to Zbonski’s death.

The lawsuit alleges that despite guidelines for infection control and prevention of coronavirus disease in nursing homes on March 13 which included closing nursing homes across the state to visitors, the facility did not significantly change its practices in the face of a situation that was already endangering the lives of the long term care facility’s residents and staff.

From November 2019 up until the day of his death on April 6, 2020, the 81-year-old Zbonski, of Burbank, had been a patient at the 125-resident Bridgeview Health Care Center. The lawsuit alleges that Zbonski began complaining and presenting symptoms of COVID-19 in March, which “fell on [the] deaf ears of a nursing home corporation that put profits over the health and safety of its residents and staff.”

As detailed in an April 15 story by Patch, the plaintiff, Meskill, said she received a call from the nursing home on March 29, saying her stepfather was experiencing severe chills and an unproductive cough. Meskill was told that Zbonski was on his way to Advocate Christ Medical Center for an evaluation. Zbonski tested positive for coronavirus.

On March 31, overwhelmed the Bridgeview facility's staff members organized a walkout and petitioned the nursing home’s management for more staffing, appropriate personal protective gear, and sick leave. An outspoken staff member was terminated two days later, and on April 6, Zbonski died at Advocate Christ. The Cook County Medical Examiner attributed his death to acute respiratory failure and pneumonia as a result of a COVID-19 virus infection.

More than a week after Zbonski’s death, a state inspection of the facility, on April 14, revealed that the facility was still failing to contain the spread of the virus due to inadequate PPE and cleaning procedures, the complaint said.

The lawsuit also details Bridgeview facility’s decades-ling history of failing state health inspections for regulatory violations, such as failing to meet infection control standards by providing hand-washing and sanitizing equipment, including a scabies outbreak in March 2019, a year before the pandemic began to ravage Illinois nursing homes.

Bridgeview Health Care Center, despite its commitment to correction plans with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the lawsuit alleges that the nursing home out profits ahead of staff and resident safety, by intentionally misallocating resources and understaffing the facility. Staff members reported ratios of 20 or more patients per caregiver, and maintained the nursing home failed to stockpile PPE, often caring for vulnerable residents without using any PPE or with reused and contaminated personal protective equipment.

“James’ pain, suffering, and tragic death was not just foreseeable, it was expected based on the reckless oversight of infection control and prevention at Bridgeview” attorney Steve Levin said in a written statement. “What’s supremely troubling is that the facility’s deficient practices, like last year when staff failed to clean and sanitize infected residents’ rooms to prevent the spread to healthier residents, are the same exact practices that caused and exacerbated the COVID-19 outbreak at Bridgeview this year.”

The family is demanding a jury trial and damages in excess of $50,000.