SAN ANTONIO – A man who says his mother was living at Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which was the subject of several KSAT 12 Defenders investigations, is speaking publicly about his mother’s ordeal at the facility.
A 460-page report by inspectors with the Department of Health and Human Services lists a number of problems within the facility, including failing to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
The facility was considered the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the San Antonio area. There were nearly 100 cases of COVID-19 between staff and residents, and 18 residents died.
Records detail deficiencies in San Antonio nursing home’s COVID-19 control practices
Dean Limes said his mother was one of the patients who was infected with the virus and survived.
“It is just terrible in there. They’re all locked in,” Limes said about the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where his mother, 77-year-old Patsy Wallace, lived for three years.
“It hasn’t been run like a real business should be run,” Limes said. “I don’t believe anything was properly quarantined. … I saw it, the PPE that they were wearing, and it was weak.”
Limes said he’s aware of issues at the facility that stretch back to when his mother went in for rehab after knee surgery three years ago.
“(She) had a blood clot. It took forever for them to go for a doctor to get it looked at. A lot of pain she went through, and they weren’t giving her, you know, basically any pain meds for it,” Limes said.
Limes also said the facility itself wasn’t up to par before the outbreak.
“Its cleanliness has dropped. They’ve lost a lot of staff before this even happened,” Limes said.
At least for Limes and his family, the headache is over. On Friday, the facility confirmed that Wallace went home with her son Thursday.
With a list of issues facility officials have been charged with correcting, it’s unclear how the current residents are doing because no one has returned our request for comment on that matter.