New Jersey nursing assistant Cheryl Roberts worked at Hilton Park Healthcare, now owned by Alaris Health, LLC, since the early 1990s. When the pandemic hit, she continued to work at the facility, where they restricted visitations by families due to COVID-19.
After her death from COVID-19 in March 2020, her son Daryl Roberts filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Alaris due to their alleged lack of safety protocols for staff and misinformation given to staff about COVID-19 sickening patients and staff.
To win the case, the attorneys must offer specific legal arguments and facts. Successful wrongful death suits must show: Duty of care, Breach of duty of care, Causation, and Damages.
The plaintiff specifically claims Alaris disregarded and broke their common-law responsibility not to intentionally place employees in harm’s way, which for Cheryl Roberts, allegedly resulted in her death.
This allegation pertains to the Wrongful Death requirements about Alaris’ Duty of Care and Breach of Duty of Care.
Court documents state due to the company “ignoring safety concerns raised by staff, refusing to provide PPE to staff and discouraging the use of PPE by staff, and hiding the fact that staff and patients had tested positive for and/or displayed symptoms of COVID-19, Defendant Alaris breached its common law duty not to intentionally subject employees to substantially certain harm.”
As in medical facilities across the world, COVID-19 soon infected and often caused the deaths of patients in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities. Battling the infectious disease during the pandemic, doctors, nurses, assistants, and others were told to wear Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks. The company had a Duty of Care responsibility to its staff to keep them as safe as possible with PPE and other measures.
At Alaris, however, as the COVID-19 cases quickly grew, court documents allege there were no masks, protective gear such as gowns, or eyewear for the staff. This breach of Duty of Care is critical to the lawsuit.
Misinformation to employees as alleged in the lawsuit also shows a breach of Duty of Care. In the Jersey City facility where Cheryl Roberts worked, members working alongside her kept getting sick. Roberts’ son, Daryl Roberts, was told by his mother that when she expressed her serious concerns about her safety to Alaris, she was told that “COVID-19 was not present at Alaris and that these symptoms were due to pneumonia and/or seasonal flu.”
Daryl Roberts, in court documents filed after his mother’s death from COVID-19, said that there was no protective clothing or masks on hand for staff, which led to her death.
“In Cheryl’s cases, the risk presented by Alaris’s aforementioned breach manifested by causing her death due to COVID-19,” he said in the lawsuit.
Furthermore, the court documents state that the deceased “exposed herself to minimal risk of COVID-19 infection outside her workplace.”
The lawsuit states numerous staff members requested PPE but never received them. The lawsuit claims Alaris “even discouraged or prohibited the use of masks until late March [of 2020].” This also shows a breach of Duty of Care.
Furthermore, the legal documents allege that not only were staff working without any PPE until late March, but the facility “intentionally misrepresented the risk of COVID-19 infection to staff and family members of patients. Alaris intentionally concealed from staff, patients, and patients’ families that staff and patients at AHP had and continued to test positive for and display symptoms of COVID-19.”
On March 28, Ms. Roberts fell ill, receiving a positive test for COVID-19 on March 30. At home, as the lawsuit notes, her “symptoms worsened and she struggled to breathe. On March 31, 2020, she was admitted to Jersey City Medical Center. Cheryl was placed on a respirator and then a ventilator. On April 5, 2020, Cheryl died due to COVID-19 at the age of 53.” The lawsuit attributes her death from COVID-19 to not being provided PPE and also being told that “COVID-19 was not present at Alaris and that these symptoms were due to pneumonia and/or seasonal flu,” which was harmful and caused her to get sick and die.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants purposefully hid the facts to staff that fellow staff and patients had not only tested positive for COVID-19 but also were sick.
The lawsuit states, “Defendant Alaris breached its common law duty not to intentionally subject employees to substantially certain harm. In Cheryl’s case, the risk presented by Alaris' aforementioned breach manifested by causing her death due to COVID-19.”
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