Dozens of Residents Evacuated from a Pasadena Nursing Home Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

On May 11th, at around 11 pm, several ambulances were called to a Pasadena nursing home to evacuate all 63 of its residents after its state license was revoked due to a coronavirus outbreak that has cost the facility eight lives. 

The nursing home, known as Golden Cross Health Care facility, had its license revoked due to “a lack of patient care, including response to COVID-19,” according to Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian. 

In total, Golden Cross has had 104 confirmed coronavirus cases–72 among patients and 32 among staff–which have resulted in eight deaths. The remaining residents have been relocated to other facilities under orders from the state Attorney General’s Office. Currently, none of the residents require hospitalization and are all being isolated and tested for the virus. 

“As of this past weekend … our fire chief and our health officer were at the facility assessing patients,” Derderian said. “We got to the point last night where it was in the best interest of the residents’ health and safety to have them moved out of the facility.”

The city’s decision to intervene was the tipping point in what appears to be an ongoing pattern of issues at the facility. Derderian said that the city’s fire and police departments had been working with them for some time to resolve a number of problems at the facility, and when local and state authorities moved in to help with the COVID outbreak, it became clear that these problems were more serious than they thought.

“Some elder abuse, so our police department is involved, we have seen care that is not provided, leading to dehydration and in some cases, some malnourishment of some of the patients,” Derderian said.

In what is already a vulnerable sector of the population, any inadequate care, abuse, or neglect that occurs in these facilities carries that much more weight in the midst of a pandemic. 

L.A. County has had 68,875 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 2,813 deaths. Nursing home residents have accounted for over half of those deaths. 

“The city staff has repeatedly and relentlessly pushed the state to act on the information that we’ve collected for several weeks,” Derderian said. 

If you or anyone that has been abused or neglected in a nursing home facility, contact us today to speak with an elder abuse attorney for a free consultation and case review.