Son questions quality of care after mother contracts Covid-19 at The Villages

Editor:

Our mom, Connie Brakenbury, is now Covid positive. This is a direct result of the incompetence and mismanagement of The Villages in Albion. My mother went into The Villages about 5 weeks ago for rehab.

On Tuesday, a week ago, my dad was told she was ready to go home. When he showed up to pick her up, he was told she was exposed and tested. We understood there was always a chance of exposure.

Do you still want to take her home? Now, my dad had zero information prior to showing up. So his next question, well was she negative? Answer, we don’t know.

Next question, can you find out? After a lengthy wait they came back and said she is negative.

Next question, you swabbed her on Saturday and today is Tuesday. Was she isolated pending the result? Answer, we can’t tell you that.

Do you still want to take her home? Now my dad has to make a decision based on lack of information, incompetence and personal danger to himself to take her home or not. He decides to take her home. This past Saturday he calls us and says he thinks she needs to go back to the hospital. She has a fever and weak.

Justin Niederhofer of the Carlton Fire Company meets us at the house, putting himself in danger to help. We finally decide, after Justin made some calls, to send her to UMMC in Batavia.

They swabbed her and were aggressive from the start. She is now positive for Covid which means The Villages swabbed her then put her back among others, pending the result and she turned positive.

My dad, pulling her out with misinformation and incompetence, put himself in danger but has given her a fighting chance, even though he is now on quarantine. She is at UMMC and they got a jump on it.

If he had left her there who knows how long the disease would have festered and who else would have been infected. Interesting to note that from the time she left the Villages until my dad called Justin, COVA Transport and UMMC, mom received more informative, professional, acute medical care in two hours than she did in two months.

She has a fighting chance. Dad is strong and trying to keep busy. Many packages have been dropped off. The thing about small town living, it is rock solid.

The Villages needs to be held accountable. To be clear we are not talking about staff we are talking about management. In fact some staff have tested positive and quit. We are not looking for any personal gain just awareness to help others.

At this point we know who our hero is. Thank you for all the support, thoughts, prayers and first responders and health care professionals. Words cannot express our feelings.

Kyle Brakenbury

Medina