HOLYOKE, MASS. (WHDH) - Current and former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home employees provided emotional testimony Tuesday as state lawmakers try to get answers about the deadly outbreak that left dozens of residents dead.
Joseph Ramirez, a certified nursing assistant who’s worked at the Holyoke Soldiers home for 5 years, said he and his co-workers are still devastated after 76 residents died at the home when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“There was frustration. There was anger, resentment toward the management,” Ramirez said.
He said he and others were kept in the dark when the virus started spreading.
“The first week of March it was known by top management and all the rest of management that we had a possible COVID veteran in our building,” he said. “This veteran was able to wander around the unit freely and had no mask on and other veterans on that unit had no protection either.”
Ramirez puts the blame squarely on the top administrators — two of whom have been removed and now face possible criminal charges.
He accused the management of ignoring CDC guidelines by putting healthy patients with infected patients without any explanation.
“I have numerous stories of people who came to me and told me how horrible it was, how shameful they felt, how some refused to do it and went home,” he recalled.
Ramirez said he was with one veteran who had Alzheimer’s when he died, only to find out weeks later that his patient also had COVD-19.
“I was able to say to him, ‘Mr. R. don’t hold out too long. When you’re ready to go, you go,” he said. “Within 5 minutes of that, I had the privilege and honor of losing Mr. R. in our home.”
The nursing assistant said he too got coronavirus and when he recovered and returned to work, he learned that half of the veterans he cared for had died from the virus.
“Nobody from management came to check on that unit. Nobody dared to walk in because they had fear of getting it,” he said. “Yet our brave nurses and CNAs did their best to do what they could and deal with what they had to see every day.”
Ramirez said the new acting management is doing the best it can — but that more changes are still needed.
“All parties from management of the soldiers home to the state level should be held accountable. Procedures should be in place so that this type of devastation does not happen again,” he said.
Just last week, distraught family members of the veterans who had died offered their own heartbreaking testimony.
State lawmakers said they will issue a report with recommendations and possible new legislation in the coming months.
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