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At last count, 72 deaths of those who proudly served the U.S. were reported at the state-run New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus.
More than half of New Jersey’s total coronavirus deaths have been reported at more than 500 nursing homes – nearly 4,200 in all -- which far exceeds any other state. Many, however, consider such a high number at what is supposed to be a safe haven at a critical time in the lives of military veterans unconscionable.
“Our aging heroes, those who kept our nation safe during other dark times in our history, deserve better,” state Sen. Joseph Lagana of Paramus said Tuesday.
And it’s not over.
Of the remaining 211 veterans and their spouses at the Veterans Home at Paramus, 115 had either tested positive for the virus or were awaiting results, the New York Times reported Monday.
An estimated quarter of the staff reportedly tested positive, with one death -- and 30 results still pending.
“What they should really do is raze it and put a park there,” Mitchell Haber, whose 91-year-old U.S. Army veteran father died last month at the home, told The New York Times. “It’s like a mass shooting.”
One of three state-run nursing homes in New Jersey, the Paramus residence was opened in 1986 to provide additional housing for honorably-discharged veterans, their spouses or Gold Star parents whose children were killed in active duty.
The first COVID-19 wave hit the Paramus home so hard that Gov. Phil Murphy sent in National Guard medics. Conditions rapidly worsened, with little word about what was happening, loved ones of residents said.
Dozens of V.A. nurses rushed in to help, along with some doctors from nearby hospitals.
The V.A. says it conducts annual inspections of state-run veterans homes to determine whether they meet federal standards of care.
If they don’t, “the department will not pay for veterans to receive care there,” V.A. officials said in a statement.
Mark Piterski, a retired Army brigadier general who’d overseen the home for the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, resigned last month. He claimed his requests for additional staffing had gone ignored by the state but that he'd resigned to run for Congress.
Because the home also gets funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, lawmakers at both the state and federal level are demanding answers.
READ: Letter to US Department of Veteran Affairs From NJ Congressmen
State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said last week that his own investigation into the coronavirus’s staggering effect on New Jersey nursing homes will include those long-term care facilities with a disproportionate number of deaths.The Veterans Home at Paramus more than qualifies.
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