LASALLE, Ill. — After two years of delays, the attorney representing a group of families who lost loved ones during a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in a veterans home says the lawsuits will proceed in Illinois State Court this summer.
In November 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak at LaSalle Veterans Home infected more than 200 residents and employees and 36 veterans died. Thirty-two families are suing the state, the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, LaSalle Veterans Home and several other administrative, medical and nursing staff at the long-term care facility for their deaths.
Lindsay Lamb is part of the lawsuits. Her grandfather Richard Cieski served in the Army in Korea.
"It was kind of shocking to us because we had gone so long without anything happening," she said. "They were our elderly citizens, but they were also veterans. They also put their lives on the line for their country, and they came home and they were able to live their lives. And at the end, when they were supposed to be taken care of and in a safe place, that didn't happen. And I think that's really hard."
Last month, a LaSalle County judge denied the state's request to litigate the cases in the Court of Claims. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said it would have meant a limit on damages awarded to the families. The cases will now be heard in Illinois State Court with a first court date scheduled for June 11. A trial date has not been set yet.
Some of the allegations in the lawsuit say various LaSalle employees had attended an off-site party on Halloween, just days before the outbreak. Management instructed staff to come to work and provide residents care despite knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and veterans found positive for the virus were not isolated from other residents to prevent further spread.
On Nov. 1, 2020, two vets and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19, according to the lawsuit. The next day the home notified the IDVA. Within a week, 60 vets and 43 staff members tested positive, and veteran deaths continued to climb in the home over the next month, according to an Illinois Department of Human Services investigation.
By December 2020, 108 residents and 105 employees tested positive, resulting in the death of 35 veterans. According to the lawsuit, there ended up being a total of 238 outbreak cases reported and 36 veterans' deaths.
The Illinois Department of Human Services investigation declared that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ lack of COVID-19 preparation contributed to the scope of the outbreak at the home, and failures in communication between the home and IDVA leadership also contributed to a delayed response to the outbreak.
A report from the Illinois Office of the Auditor General later said the state's public health department failed to identify and respond to the outbreak.
"This was eight, nine months in COVID and these veterans, these residents of this facility deserved much, much better," Levin & Perconti attorney Mike Bonamarte said. "I don't want these cases put on the back burner... Their families right now deserve the attention of the people that can intervene and bring these cases to some fair and reasonable resolution. Whether that's the governor's office, the Attorney General's Office, someone needs to step up and do right by these people."
"We knew it was gonna take awhile, we weren't naïve to that," Lamb said. "But I think once that report came out and it was found that they were in the wrong and they did make the mistakes, that would have changed things."
She's hoping they're now closer to a resolution. She also hopes these lawsuits lead to stronger guidelines if there were to be another outbreak of a virus at a veterans' home.
"It kind of gives us a date where we can look towards in the future that will hopefully give us the answers and the justice that my grandfather Richard and everybody else's family members deserve," Lamb said. "And hopefully the next generation of veterans that go in there are safe and they don't ever have to worry about this."
News 8 reached out to the Illinois Attorney General's office about the case. A spokesperson said they were not able to comment on ongoing litigation.