On the evening of March 3, State Rep. Ron Kim (R-CA) held a networking meeting and invited legislators to meet with nursing Home families to hear their stories. Participants demanded that the lawmakers remove the nursing home management’s legal exemption from the state budget and that Governor Cuomo be held accountable for the unnecessary deaths at the nursing home, calling for his immediate resignation.
Several sons and daughters of deceased New York nursing home residents took to the Internet in the evening of March 3 to recall the loss of their loved ones and to demand Cuomo’s resignation and thank him. (Video screenshot)
State Assemblywoman Yuklin Niu, who is of Chinese descent, broke down in tears as she heard the stories of the families of nursing home residents who lost their mothers. (Video screenshot)
A trio of siblings named Pabey wept as they talked about the death of their mother. Their mother was a temporary resident of a nursing home and only wanted to stay for 2 or 3 weeks. They visited their mother every day until last March 12, when the nursing home suddenly banned them from entering; she died on April 6.
“March 11 was the last day I saw my mother, and I never thought she would die.” Brother Sammy (Sammy) said with some sobs, “They wouldn’t let us in no matter what they said. I just wanted to say to her that she was the best mother ever ……”
After their mother’s death, the siblings learned that it was the governor’s March 25 executive order that forced the nursing home where their mother was staying to admit 52 people who tested positive for the virus. So they believe the policy directly contributed to the healthy mother’s sudden death just 12 days later.
“Hundreds of people died in this nursing home, but they only said there were 13 people until the news broke that they had 98 deaths.” Sister Haydee, who said she was the only Family member to go in and see her mother in her last moments, said, “My mother was in bed without a mask, and the other person who came in didn’t have a mask on either …… Now the family knows the nursing home is not capable (of receiving new crown patients), they have no protective equipment, no staff, no control regulations, so these nursing homes are responsible for too many lives lost.”
If the governor grants legal immunity to the administration of these nursing homes, Sammy said, “then basically their license is equivalent to a license to kill, that’s how I see it …… this person needs to step down. Now we’re having a hard Time every day, and I miss my mother every day.”
Another family member and Kim Tui-seok himself both recounted their experiences of losing loved ones.
State Senator Biagi participated in a network meeting yesterday evening (March 3) to listen to the stories of nursing home families. (Video screenshot)
State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-N.Y.) and Chinese Representative Yuh-Line Niou (D-N.Y.) attended the meeting and also shed tears with the families who lost their loved ones.
Kim Tui-sik said Governor Cuomo issued a faulty executive order that allowed more than 9,000 people who tested positive for the virus to be admitted to unprepared nursing homes; when the problem later surfaced, instead of taking remedial action to financially support the nursing homes to save lives, the governor issued a directive that allowed the nursing homes to destroy patients’ medical records, denying families the right to know the truth.
“The governor had two choices. The best one for him, he resigns based on these things. If it was his own bad decisions, bad policies that led to so many unnecessary deaths, he still needs to resign.” Kim Tui Sik said, “But if he made those bad decisions because of those big donors, for special interest groups, he should be prosecuted.”
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