NEWFANE, N.Y. — Craig Shaffer was willing to risk his career to talk with 2 On Your Side.
“I don’t care. I almost died.”
The former nursing home administrator is still recovering from a bout with COVID-19 that almost killed him. In the spring, Shaffer spent most of two months heavily sedated and on a ventilator. For several weeks, he was also hooked up to a heart-lung bypass machine.
And Shaffer is convinced he contracted the virus at work.
"There's no doubt. There's no doubt in my mind," he said.
Shaffer has not been back to the Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center since he called in sick on April 17.
State Health Department data shows 28 residents died at the Niagara County nursing home. Twenty one were classified as ‘COVID confirmed’. Another seven deaths listed as ‘COVID presumed’.
SHORT ON SUPPLIES
Last fall, as influenza season approached, Shaffer says there were problems with getting needed supplies. Some weeks, nothing came in. A shortage of adult briefs for incontinent residents was particularly troubling. So, Shaffer says he contacted ownership.
“I absolutely told them I needed my supplies,” said Shaffer.
But the shortage lingered, and Shaffer went shopping at local Dollar Stores and Walmarts making purchases on his own credit card. More difficult to find was personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.
“I can tell you we did not have gowns. We did not have N-95 (masks) for the longest time. I started buying whatever I could get ahold of on my credit card and it wasn't much because the prices had been jacked up so high it was cost prohibitive," said Shaffer.
By December, the coronavirus outbreak in China was making news around the world. It worried Shaffer. Afraid of what could happen if COVID-19 breeched Newfane Rehab, he asked regional management and ownership for permission to start intense preparations.
“I asked them if we could set up a COVID unit. I wanted to get supplies into the facility that would helped us be better prepared," said Shaffer. He says he wanted to identify staff willing to work with COVID-positive residents and get in some training on how to properly put-on and take-off PPE.
"They told me, no. They didn't think it was a good idea."
THE ORDER
In March, the New York City area went from one confirmed case of COVID-19 to tens of thousands of cases. A big concern was whether there would be enough hospital beds.
To maximize available hospital beds, the state health department issued what would become the most controversial move in its COVID response.
On March 25, all nursing homes were sent a directive, barring them from rejecting a transferred hospital patient “based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COIVD-19.”
The order scared Shaffer, “What it said to me is, as long as we could care for the person, that we needed to admit them regardless if they had COVID or not.”
Additionally, the state health department order barred nursing homes from requiring a COVID-19 test prior to admitting a hospital transfer.
In a pandemic, how does a nursing home know if it can properly care for a patient transferred from a hospital without a COVID test? Shaffer says, “You can’t.”
When asked during a televised COVID briefing whether nursing homes were complaining about the order, Governor Andrew Cuomo interrupted the reporter mid-question, “They don’t have the right to object. That is the rule and that is the regulation and they have to comply with it.”
“PATIENT ZERO”
Niagara County’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 was in March. On April 7, a 58-year-old man was the county’s first virus fatality.
That evening, Shaffer was working late and got a text from a staffer. A 75-year-old female patient from Eastern Niagara Hospital was arriving. She was described in the text as afebrile, or without a fever, and no COVID symptoms.
But when the woman arrived, Shaffer could tell she was sick.
“She coughed. In her voice, you could hear crackles. You knew there was something going on,” said Shaffer. It made Shaffer nervous.
The new resident was wheeled into the C-Wing, or the Rehab Unit of the nursing home. Her temperature was taken. She was running a fever. Shaffer wanted the woman tested for COVID right away. The test came back positive.
“I was quite honestly a little angry because I suspected she was much worse than what had been reported to us," said Shaffer.
A spokeswoman for Eastern Niagara said the hospital never knowingly transferred a COVID positive patient, but she acknowledged at that time patients were not routinely tested before transfer.
When Shaffer told his staff they had a new resident infected with the virus, some walked out.
“They said, ‘I’m not doing it’, and they left,” said Shaffer.
Jenny Zwick and Jennifer Adams stayed. Both worked in the Rehab Unit. Adams was the director. Zwick was a nurse there. They attended to virus-infected patient as ‘Patient Zero’.
“We even brought her an Easter basket. One of the aides did, brought her an Easter basket to keep up her spirits,” said Zwick.
Adams noted the women was, “alert and oriented. Wonderful lady. Super nice and within a week she was gone.”
2 On Your Side obtained a copy of the woman’s death certificate from a family member. Listed as the cause of death, “COVID-19 infection”.
THE VIRUS SPREADS
After the arrival and death of the transfer patient from Eastern Niagara Hospital, Zwick, Adams and other staffers say the coronavirus spread inside Newfane Rehab like wildfire.
Adams said, “We had dedicated staff assigned to this patient. When the weekend came, they were short-staffed so they started doing the floating.”
Floating is a term for moving staff about the building. Workers assigned to the Rehab Unit (which would become the COVID unit) were given tasks in other parts of the nursing home. Unless done with exceptional care and proper attention to PPE and sanitizing, floating can create opportunities for the virus to spread.
And it did.
Shaffer called in sick on April 17. He would never return to the nursing home. A week later he was in the hospital, fighting for his life. He’s convinced he contracted COVID-19 from the hospital transfer to his facility.
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” said Shaffer.
This was also the explanation Jill Sawyer got form staff at the nursing home.
Her father, Gary Lickfield, a resident of the nursing home died from COVID-19.
Prior to her father’s death, Sawyer says got regular phone calls from the facility updating his condition. In one call, Sawyer says she was told how the virus was introduced to the facility.
“They said that this patient transferred in from the hospital and that within 24-hours they saw she was having symptoms. They decided to test her and the test came back positive,” said Sawyer.
DEATH TOLL RISES
In May, 2 On Your Side reported the virus had spread to 113 residents at Newfane Rehab. Staff fell sick, too.
More evidence of the outbreak was stacking up just blocks away at the Newfane Town Hall.
“We started seeing an influx of death certificates being filed here. Every week it was getting worse and worse,” said Newfane Town Supervisor Timothy Horanberg.
The director of the Niagara County Health Department was seeing the same disturbing data.
Daniel Stapleton said, “We got in direct contact with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to make sure they were aware of the concerns that we had and making sure they were following up.”
A spokesman for the NYSDOH says there were two surprise COVID inspections on May 8 and May 14. Despite the growing number of virus deaths inside the nursing home, the spokesman said neither inspection turned up any infection control issues.
THE BATTLE INSIDE
Zwick and Adams say Newfane Rehab was not prepared for a COVID fight within the facility.
Adams said, “We were already tight on staffing, very tight on supplies. I was concerned about how it was going to go.”
A shortage of key supplies also prompted employees to scramble for their own protective gear. Adams say she got a case of N-95 masks donated.
“My best friend’s husband provided us with Tyvek suits so that we could be covered head-to-toe. Other co-workers supplied us with additional head gear,” said Zwick.
And when deaths mounted, funeral homes began to refuse to enter the nursing home to collect the dead adding a new, grim task for the staff.
“We put them in body bags,” said Zwick, “I’m not used to bagging bodies and tagging toes and putting plastic bags over their heads to prevent any droplets from going into the air. It’s tough. It’s really tough.”
LEAVING
Adams left Newfane rehab in the spring. Zwick left in October. Both admit to some guilt about leaving colleagues and residents behind.
Shaffer miraculously recovered from his bout with COVID-19. He said he has not had any communication with ownership or management since calling in sick back in April.
“Not even a Dollar Store card,” said Shaffer.
But that’s not what troubles Shaffer most.
Shaffer said, “I just feel so bad for the family members and so many of the residents who I loved. I talked to them every day… and now they’re gone now. They’re gone. And it’s just my opinion, but I believe the losses could have been greatly reduced.
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NYSDOH Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has previously said it is a “false narrative” that COVID deaths in nursing homes were caused by transferred hospital patients. Yet, as we’ve laid out above, three employees say that’s exactly what happened at Newfane Rehab. A spokesman for the department, Gary Holmes, points to an internal investigation which concludes community spread was a much more likely explanation of how the virus entered nursing home because a wave of residents testing positive happened before the controversial directive to nursing homes.
2 On Your Side has asked to review the data used in the state health department study.
2 On Your Side also contacted the ownership group of Newfane Rehab. We also supplied them the basic facts of our story and submitted several questions. We received no response to our calls and emails.