Legal proceedings will move forward in a LaSalle County court in connection with the deaths of three dozen veterans who died at a Veterans Affairs facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than two years since they first filed suit, some of the families tell FOX 32 Chicago they still do not have closure. They also say they feel the State of Illinois has not done enough to resolve the lengthy legal battle and are asking for accountability.
Now, they hope a judge's recent ruling will lead to justice for their loved ones.
"It’s hard. It’s hard that he got robbed of the rest of the years that he had, and he had a lot more years left in him," said Lindsay Lamb.
Richard Cieski, who served in the Korean War, is one of veterans who died when COVID swept through the LaSalle Veterans Home in 2020.
"It’s been some time now, everyone sort of forgot about it, well we didn’t," said Lamb, who is Cieski’s granddaughter. "It’s frustrating that no one is taking responsibility for what happened."
Lamb and her loved ones are among 32 families suing several medical officials who were working at the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs during the pandemic.
There has been little movement in court, but now those lawsuits may finally move forward. --->READ MORE HERE
 |
| Credit: MQ-Illustrations/stock.adobe.com |
In an unpublished decision, the Appellate Division reinstated a Bergen County Superior Court wrongful-death suit in favor of the family of married health care aides who died from COVID-19, finding the trial court denied the plaintiffs’ motion to amend before discovery was completed.
The estates of Alfredo and Susana Pabatao, a couple married for more than 40 years, filed suit in July 2021 against Hackensack Meridian Health and Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen. Alfredo Pabatao worked at the hospital as a transport aide, while Susana Pabatao worked at a nearby nursing home. But the couple died at the hospital, just days apart, on March 26 and 30, 2020, due to COVID-19, according to the opinion.
The complaint alleged that Hackensack Meridian, along with other individual and corporate defendants, caused the two to become infected with the virus, causing them to suffer injury, death and damages. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint and the trial court agreed.
“There’s nothing here to show anything other than this being the tragic result of a pandemic, nor that the deficiencies claimed were even a proximate cause and certainly that there was no intentional and reckless conduct,” Bergen County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Wilson said in his oral opinion.
While this appeal was pending, the claims filed against Alfredo Pabatao’s employer, Palisades Medical, Hackensack Meridian and Dr. Anthony J. Passannante Jr. were settled, according to the opinion. The remaining defendants were Susana Pabatao’s employers, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, Careplus Bergen Inc. and its president and chief executive officer, Deborah Visconi.
Wilson concluded that the case must be dismissed with prejudice because there was no way “to surmount either the issue of proximate cause, duty or to vault over the exclusive remedy of the Workers’ Compensation Act or to now impose liability upon the employer for the harm that was apparently caused to the wife who somehow got Covid,” according to the opinion. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Rival Covid-19 jab developers face off in High Court patent trial
Lessons from COVID-19: Preparing for future pandemics means looking beyond the health data
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment