My investigative story for the @clarionledger: Months into the pandemic, staff at several Mississippi nursing homes failed to follow simple guidelines meant to stop the virus’ spread. Dozens of elderly residents died as a result.
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Staff members weren’t wearing masks or other PPE. At some homes, patients who were sick were never isolated from those who weren’t. Staff who got sick never quarantined in some cases, and exposed hundreds of people, inspection reports show.
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The most gut-wrenching failure? At one home, staff took an oxygen respirator off a patient with COVID-19 and, without cleaning it, placed it on another, COVID-19 negative patient. They later got sick.
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clarionledger.com/in-depth/news/…
And then there were the people who were never tested: A state health official told me the true number of deaths in long-term care facilities here is probably closer to half of the state’s COVID-19 death toll
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One of those people was Joy Stafford. She loved animals, children and playing the slots in Tunica. She died alone in a DeSoto County hospital after catching COVID-19 in her nursing home. She was never tested while she was alive.
clarionledger.com/in-depth/news/…
clarionledger.com/in-depth/news/…
Thanks to @charlesornstein for coaching me through this one while I was at @columbiajournm this spring. And thanks to @marlonawalker for giving me the time to finish it off, his patience during the editing process and for seeing the value in this work.
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