Friday, May 15, 2020
Vol. 80, No. 12
MOTORCADE OF LOVE
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Plainview resident speaks out about nursing home deaths BY GARY SIMEONE
Division Avenue High School's building administrators and staff, central administrators and school board members participated in a parade around Levittown on May 4th to celebrate the Photo courtesy of the Levittown Public Schools graduating class of 2020. See page 6
Man arrested in gas station robbery
Barry Costa
Nassau County Police have arrested a Huntington Station man for allegedly robbing the Speedway gas station located at 60 Jericho Tpke. in Jericho. According to detectives, Barry Costa, 63, entered the gas station, approached the teller and placed his hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. Police say that Costa then allegedly went behind the counter and took lottery tick-
ets, cigarettes and currency from the register. The defendant then fled the scene on foot. After an investigation, Barry Costa was placed under arrest without incident at Jericho Motel on Monday, May 11, at 1:30 p.m. Costa was charged with Robbery 3rd degree. He was arraigned on Tuesday, May 12th in Mineola.
A state report issued last week, provided a shockingly high number of nursing home residents on Long Island who have succumbed to the COVID-19 disease. The report stated that 1,050 residents have died from the disease, which was 70% more than previously reported in official state documents. Jeremy Lieberman, a Plainview resident, said that his 97 year old grandmother, was a longtime resident at the Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack. She ended up passing away from the coronavirus on April 16th, weeks before her 98th birthday. “Without any type of warning, Gurwin started accepting patients who were tested positive for the Coronavirus,” said Lieberman. “Our family didn’t receive any phone calls about the situation until we got the call that my grandmother was experiencing a high fever and respiratory issues.” He said the facility didn’t test her for the disease and followed a standard protocol for patients who are infected with COVID-19. “On April 12th her condition worsened and she progressed to pneumonia in both lungs. Four days later she died and the official cause was listed as COVID-19,” said Lieberman.
Over 500 nursing home residents have died from the disease in Nassau County and over 600 in Suffolk County. “The state is blaming the nursing homes for not taking the proper measures to care for patients and the nursing homes are blaming the state for transferring people with the disease to their facilities,” said Lieberman. “It’s like setting a brush fire in the middle of a dry forest. I blame everybody for this reprehensible and negligent behavior to not look after this vulnerable population.” As of May 10th, Gurwin had listed 34 patient deaths due to the coronavirus, according to the website, www.health.ny.gov. This statistic is considered middle of the road compared to other nursing home facilities on Long Island which have averaged over 50 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. “What these statistics don’t show is that these facilities are permanent homes for these people, and the only job for employees is to take care of them as best they can,” said Lieberman. “My grandmother, Faye, was a resident there for five years and for the last few months our family was banned from seeing her. She ended up dying alone, like many of the patients afflicted with this virus, and that is the saddest part.”
Zoom seminar against sexual abuse PAGE 2 Top of their classes in Levittown schools PAGE 10