The mother-in-law of the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, contracted the coronavirus at an upscale nursing home in Morris County, New Jersey, according to a lawsuit filed last week.
Rocker Nils Lofgren and his wife Amy moved her mother, Patricia J. Landers, into Brookdale Senior Living in Florham Park where the home had promised the family 24-hour security and a staff trained to deal with residents who have dementia.
Landers, 83, “left unattended escaped” the facility in the middle of the night for hours on April 8, says the lawsuit, and was eventually located by police officers — three miles away, bruised and confused.
After she returned to the facility, the family was told she tested negative for the coronavirus.
A week later, Landers was admitted to a hospital in Montclair, where she tested positive for COVID-19 and was suffering from pneumonia.
Landers is now recovering and has been transferred to another facility.
Brookdale has reported only 10 cases of coronavirus as of Friday, and there have been no reported deaths from the virus, according to the New Jersey Health Department.
Lofgren, 68, who is also a member of Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse, told the New York Times, “Shining a light on this problem is important.”
“This is not to take the light off what has been a very demoralizing, tragic story for my mother-in-law that’s still being written” he said.
The lawsuit “involves every child’s worst nightmare” and comes amid a pandemic overrunning nursing care homes across the state, exposing the weakness in the elder care system.
The facility is accused of negligence, fraud, deceptive trade practices and a violation of a New Jersey state law that protects the rights of nursing home residents.
“It’s a nightmare because 99 percent of most people can’t even afford a lawyer,” Lofgren told the Times. “And they just take it, and their families are decimated by it.”
“It’s unconscionable and immoral and disgusting,” he added. “I hope we can hold them accountable.”