Cold Spring Hills nursing home on Long Island sued for alleged neglect, inhumane treatment
WOODBURY, N.Y. -- There are disturbing allegations against a nursing home on Long Island.
CBS2's Jennifer Bisram spoke with a family who says their loved one's life was forever changed after staying there.
"My mom is the rock of the family. She's a very generous person, a lot of spirit, churchgoing, active," Kimberly Biederman saiad.
Biederman describes her mother, 80-year-old Lorraine Kalleberg, before she went to the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation.
"She came to us, you know... not even close to the woman who went in," she said. "I feel like this facility really robbed my mother of living out her life the way she should have."
She tells CBS2 while at Cold Spring Hills in 2020, her mother was unreachable, had a kidney failure that went unnoticed and developed a stage 4 bed sore that's too graphic to show on television.
"What they did was criminal," Biederman said.
Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Cold Spring Hills. In the 186-page complaint, it is alleged that residents suffered "repeated neglect and inhumane treatment" and "poor quality of care that began well before the COVID-19 pandemic."
The allegations also include staffing cuts, poor conditions including dirty rooms, inadequate care and financial fraud totaling $22.6 million, money that the state claims owners diverted for themselves from Medicaid and Medicare funds.
"I'm so thankful for the Attorney General's office for pursuing this," Biederman said.
The state wants to prohibit the facility from admitting new residents until staffing levels meet appropriate standards and require Cold Spring Hills to pay for a financial and independent health care monitor to oversee operations.
The state also alleges during the pandemic, the staff failed to report 51 of its 98 COVID deaths.
CBS2 tried to get a hold of managers at Cold Spring Hills multiple times Friday. An attorney representing the facility declined to comment.
"Nobody should have to go through this," Biederman said.
Biederman's mom is still alive today and is now being treated at a different nursing home, but Biederman knows the sad reality.
"My mom is never coming home, and I can't even have her in my house for Christmas," she said.
The Attorney General's office is encouraging anyone with information or concerns about nursing home conditions, abuse or neglect to file a complaint at ag.ny.gov/nursinghomes or call the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit hotline at (833) 249-8499.
