Lawsuit: Pa. Dept. Of Health's Lack Of Long-Term Care Facility Inspections Resulted In Brighton Rehab And Wellness Center Experimenting On Woman's 81-Year-Old Father
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Health claiming their lack of inspections of long-term care facilities resulted in the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center experimenting on her 81-year-old father.
Jodi Gill filed the lawsuit on behalf of her father, an 81-year-old who has lived at Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center since September and suffers from advanced dementia as well as cardiovascular disease.
The lawsuit alleges that Gill was called by a nurse at Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center and was convinced to sign a consent form for an experimental drug study. According to the lawsuit, she was told it was to find out whether the drug combination of hydroxychloroquine and zinc would prevent infection from coronavirus.
"This is not a case where we are requesting any money damages. Instead Jodi, on behalf of her father, is requesting that the Pa. Department of Health do the appropriate inspections of Brighton Rehab," said Bob Daley, who is an attorney on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit goes on to claim there's no evidence the study was approved by an Institutional Review Board, that a Data Safety Monitoring Board was involved, or any kind of "informed consent" was sought or given.
Gill claims she felt like she had to sign because she was told it would help her father, and by not signing it, she would not be helping him. She was also allegedly told hundreds of people had been called and she needed to quickly make up her mind.
"It felt like they weren't going to do anything for my dad if I didn't sign it and they were going to write him off. That scared me even more," Gill said.
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"It is unlikely that such egregious conduct could have occurred had inspections not been halted," the suit reads.
At the time the suit was filed on Tuesday, it wasn't known if Gill's father had been physically injured because of what the lawsuit calls an "unapproved biomedical research study that was conducted on him and hundreds of others in the Brighton facility."
"I was terrified and I did get the call he was negative," Gill told KDKA.
Daley tells KDKA that the state has not gone into nursing homes since the outbreak or responded to filed complaints like Gill's. He said this lawsuit is for elderly people to get the protection needed to prevent further spread of the virus.
"We understand it's a pandemic, But we also know with the proper infection control, transmission could be limited," Daley said.
In an email, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said they cannot comment on litigation.
As of Tuesday, The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 247 coronavirus cases and 52 deaths among residents in Beaver County nursing homes and personal care homes.