County families mourn, celebrate loved ones lost at Brighton Rehab

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Chrissy Suttles @ChrissySuttles

Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center is the site of Pennsylvania's largest reported COVID-19 outbreak at one facility. Some families of lost loved ones yearn for closure amid administrative secrecy, while others say staff at Beaver County’s largest nursing home needs help, not scorn.

BRIGHTON TWP. — Ala Mazzocca was a voracious reader, talented seamstress and master card player, her daughters boast.

The Italian immigrant moved to western Pennsylvania as a teenager shortly after World War II and soon made a home in Aliquippa — opening her own bar and starting a family.

Mazzocca, or “Nani,” turned 91 earlier this year and celebrated with family at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Brighton Township, where she’d lived for five years. Her daughters, Barbara Macurak, 61, and Patricia Mazzocca, 64, both of Center Township, visited her almost daily at the nursing home.

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“You have to visit often to maintain a sense of control in a big place like that,” Macurak said. “She’s your mom, so you do what you have to do. We never had any issues because we were always there.”

When Macurak stopped by on March 12 to discover emergency vehicles blocking facility entrances, she thought maybe there was a fire.

“I had no idea what was going on,” she said. “News about the coronavirus was still pretty new, and we had no idea how horrible it would get.”

Once officials explained there had been a COVID-19 outbreak on site and infected residents would be moved to a separate wing, Macurak sensed the visitation restrictions were in the best interest of public health and went home.

She didn’t expect her mother’s residence would soon become the site of Pennsylvania’s largest single-facility COVID-19 outbreak.

She and Patricia Mazzocca made multiple attempts to check on their 91-year-old mother with dementia via phone and email for two weeks. Many calls went unanswered, and those who did answer provided few details on their mother’s condition. At one point, the two considered calling police.

Some limited communication came later, with staff and administrators assuring the sisters there was nothing to worry about.

On April 6, after several days of silence, administrators at Beaver County’s largest nursing home said they would stop releasing COVID-19 numbers to the public and instead presume all 750 employees and residents may be positive for the virus. The decision was made to protect asymptomatic patients after consulting the state Department of Health, company leaders said.

The last time Brighton staff released numbers, there were 42 residents and 10 employees with positive cases, as well as five deaths. Beaver County commissioners said last week the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency now reported at least 104 positive cases at the nursing home, although new Pennsylvania Department of Health data indicates that number is much higher.

People reported to have contracted novel coronavirus in the U.S., by day

The state reports there are 192 cases of COVID-19 in three unnamed Beaver County nursing homes. That includes 181 residents and 11 employees, with 30 deaths. Two facilities other than Brighton Rehab — Concordia at Villa St. Joseph in Baden and Rochester Manor and Villa — have both reported one case. Rochester Manor reported a resident contracted the virus, while the case at Villa St. Joseph was an employee.

According to ZIP code-based data released Monday by the state, Brighton Rehab could have as many as 161 COVID-19 cases, including as many as 151 residents. That would account for about 54 percent of the county’s 298 total infections. The 30 nursing home deaths represent nearly 85 percent of the county’s total deaths.

The state’s ZIP code data indicates there likely is an outbreak at a fourth facility in the county, but state officials were unable to confirm.

Pennsylvania does not provide a breakdown of cases at each site, and Beaver County does not have a health department to help provide additional information. It’s primarily up to private facilities to report numbers to the state.

State DOH officials are not factoring recoveries into daily COVID-19 updates, so it’s unclear how many of these patients have since recovered. Brighton Rehab in a recent statement said approximately 50 percent of those who tested positive are now asymptomatic and “have returned to baseline,” warning that no county in the nation has yet eradicated the virus.

“We will likely see more positive residents and there will be tragic loss of life,” the statement said.

Following weeks of “spotty” communication from Brighton Rehab staff, Macurak and Patricia Mazzocca received a call from the medical director’s office letting the family know their mother — and a number of other patients — would be receiving doses of the malaria-treatment drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure.

The unproven drug, touted by President Donald Trump for its ability to ease some symptoms of the novel coronavirus, is still undergoing clinical trials. Doctors and researchers have had mixed results while studying the drug’s effectiveness, and a recent French study found hydroxychloroquine was associated with a higher risk of heart complications.

“They are trying to put out a fire with a glass of water,” Macurak said. “I felt that if I said no to the treatment, they would think I want my mother dead.”

The last time either sister spoke to Ala Mazzocca directly, she was unable to form a coherent string of words, they said, which was unusual for her.

“It sounded like word salad,” Patricia Mazzocca said. “The nurse I spoke to said they noticed that and were not sure what action they were going to take yet. It indicated something was wrong.”

A week later, on April 9, staff called again to report Ala Mazzocca was perfectly healthy aside from bedsores.

“Bedsores were unusual for her,” said her grandson, Andrew Macurak, 32, of Washington, D.C.

“She wasn’t going to run a marathon, but she didn't lay in bed all day. So, for her to have bedsores means she had been bedridden for a while. I think everything suggests that she was not fine when administrators called my aunt to say she’s fine. It suggests she was sick for a while and either they did not notice or did not provide accurate information.”

Four days later, Ala Mazzocca died of pneumonia. Her family wants to know if this was a complication related to COVID-19 and why they were not told of her condition sooner. Macurak said she may have moved their mother to another facility for medical care if she had known.

“Someone could have got me on Skype with her,” Macurak said. “I wanted her to hear her voice, and I think hearing my voice would have been a great comfort to her. But I was denied that opportunity.”

If Brighton won’t release numbers and vital information to even patients’ families, “someone needs to get involved, either on a state or federal level,” Patricia Mazzocca said.

Andrew Macurak wants to ensure everyone at the facility is receiving appropriate care, he said, which is challenging with limited transparency and access.

“I want to know that my grandmother, in her final days, was comfortable, clean and taken care of,” he said. “The lack of transparency makes me fear that she was not and that other people are not getting that care, either.”

The family has not yet received Ala Mazzocca’s death certificate to confirm the official cause of her death.

Kaycee Cline, 36, of Beaver, wasn’t surprised by the outbreak in Brighton Rehab. Her 73-year-old grandfather, who does not have COVID-19, has lived at the nursing home for two years. Administrators were “very” communicative with her family during the initial outbreak, she said, but stopped responding to calls two weeks ago.

“It’s a big place,” she said. “Crowded on a good day, and they have always struggled, in my opinion, to keep enough staff. I don’t think it’s the nurses’ fault or anything, it’s a product of an unsustainable healthcare industry and questionable management.”

Christine Geer of White Township had a different experience with Brighton Rehab staff ahead of her mother-in-law’s coronavirus-related passing on April 9.

Brighton Rehab staff was “phenomenal” and regularly called her family throughout the ordeal, she said.

Lola Barkfelt, 68, of White Township, was the second person at Brighton Rehab to be diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in mid-March. She was living in the east wing, where the building’s outbreak began.

"They called to let us know she was running a fever and tested her for COVID-19, and the next day they got the test results in and gave us a call,” Geer said. “They went over a game plan and I approved it. They didn't change any of her medicine without approval from me."

Barkfelt had lived at the nursing home for nearly three years. Geer and her husband were initially nervous about putting Barkfelt in a nursing home, so the two made it a point to regularly check in to ensure she was receiving proper care.

“I made a point of never sticking to a schedule,” Geer said. “They never knew when I was going to show up."

Geer is “very satisfied” with how Brighton treated her mother-in-law, and feels staff did everything right to try to save her in the end. Barkfelt had Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and two stints in her heart.

"I honestly think if it hadn't been for her underlying disease, like the Alzheimer's, she would have pulled through,” she said. “Her body just finally shut down. Whatever they were doing for her, they were doing the right thing."

Geer’s old family friend, Deb Rickard, is still living in the east wing fighting her own battle with COVID-19. Geer said the New Brighton resident, now in her 60s, is on the mend.

"She is pulling through,“ she said. ”Things are getting better on the east wing."

Staff is exceptionally short-handed right now, Geer said, but nurses are doing their part to keep up with both the physical and mental health needs of patients. She said criticizing Brighton Rehab staff is misguided, and hopes the community will come together to help them fight it on the front lines.

"In a group home like that, when you have COVID-19, you're going to have a hot spot,” she said. “If everyone is so worried about Brighton Rehab, how about sending some volunteers over there. These poor women need help; that's what they need.”

Staff writers Dani Fitzgerald and Daveen Rae Kurutz contributed to this report.