Patty Racheff answered the phone to learn of another death.
“My husband just told me of another person who passed away last night at the nursing home,” said Racheff of Durango.
Racheff’s mother is one of 84 residents at Four Corners Health Care Center in Durango to contract COVID-19. In addition to the residents, 48 staff members have contracted the disease, and three people have died, San Juan Basin Public Health said Friday.
It is La Plata County’s largest outbreak to date.
The outbreak was first reported Nov. 23, during a dramatic rise in cases both in La Plata County and throughout the state.
Staff members are exhausted, one nurse said.
Relatives and residents are trying to keep a positive attitude, according to two families who spoke with The Durango Herald. But it’s a challenge.
“If you can’t see it and you can’t hear it, how do you fight it? It’s like a ghost,” said Allyn Lewis, Racheff’s sister.
Long-term care facilities house some of the most vulnerable populations for contracting severe cases of COVID-19. Facilities across Colorado are seeing outbreaks, including one with more than 90 cases among residents, according to state data.
Four Corners Health Care Center is following public health guidance for screening staff members, grouping residents, using personal protective equipment, testing and other infection prevention and control measures, said Annaliese Impink, Four Corners spokeswoman.
“The center administrator is in daily communication with the San Juan Basin Public Health Department,” she said.
“As far as PPE goes, we continue to have ample supply of PPE from a number of sources,” she added.
Inside, half the facility was walled off by a plastic sheet to create a quarantine zone for COVID-positive residents, according to a nurse who declined to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the media and was fearful of losing her job.
“Because there’s so many of them though, the COVID positives are staying on the other side, too, because there’s no room,” she said.
The nurse said she suspects the quarantine area was less effective because the entire building used the same ventilation system.
Each staff member gets four N95 masks and rotates between them. Nurses wear personal protective equipment to care for a COVID-19 positive resident, then move on to care for a negative resident, she said.
“That’s like Nursing 101 – you don’t do that,” she said.
Impink did not respond to the Herald’s attempts verify comments about the quarantine zone, ventilation system or nursing assignments. Staff members at the center declined to respond Friday.
Staff members were burnt out but doing the best they could, the nurse said.
She found out she had COVID-19 in early December. After that, she went home to isolate.
“I’m hesitant to go back,” she said. She is immunocompromised and was concerned about being reinfected with the virus. “I feel bad because they need the nurses desperately. They do. But I can’t put myself in that position.”
From outside the facility, families are trying to keep their spirits up, saying they trust the Four Corners Health Care Center staff to take good care of their relatives.
Racheff said her mother, Maddy Surdey, was infected with the coronavirus shortly after Thanksgiving.
“Just as of the other day, she’s back in her own room. She’s fine, she’s smiling,” said Racheff, who checks in regularly by phone and through her mother’s closed window. “So far, so good. It’s just so scary.”
Lewis, who lives in Alamosa, said she had a moment of relief after her mother finished a 10-day quarantine. The next day, the outbreak was announced.
“I’m a little bit frightened for everybody. Nobody wants to get this. They’re kind of like sitting ducks,” she said. “There’s no place to go, and there’s nothing anybody else can do.”
Dwayne Howell of Durango said his father, 91, tested positive in late November, and his mother, 91, caught the illness this week. They’re doing fine, he said.
“I really do feel like the Four Corners has tried to do everything they can to keep it from happening. What are you going to do?” Howell said. “We can’t live in fear. ... We just don’t want them to be suffering.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
