“Nursing homes set restrictions to lower risks, but COVID-19 has continued spreading in some homes, and residents are now grappling with consequences from isolation.”
“Colleen Mallory and Deanna Williams greet their 89-year-old mother, Peggy Walsh, through the window of Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash.” Credit…Grant Hindsley for The New York Times
by Jack Healy, Danielle Ivory and
“KIRKLAND, Wash. — After months of near-isolation inside his senior care facility, Charlie no longer recognizes his wife of almost 50 years. In another nursing home, Susan’s toenails grew so long that she could not squeeze into her shoes. Ida lost 37 pounds and stopped speaking. Minnie cried and asked God to just take her.
“They are among thousands of older people stricken by another epidemic ravaging America’s nursing homes — an outbreak of loneliness, depression and atrophy fueled by the very lockdowns that were imposed to protect them from the coronavirus.
“’A slow killer,’ said Esther Sarachene, who said she watched her 82-year-old mother, Ida Pasik, wither and fall mute during the months she was confined to her nursing home room in Maryland. ‘She didn’t know who I was.’
“Covid-19 continues to scythe through the halls of long-term care facilities despite an array of safety measures and bans on visitors, put in place months ago to slow the devastation.”
“Click here to read this article at The New York Times in its entirety.
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