17 people have died amid nursing home COVID-19 outbreaks in Mecklenburg, NC data show
Seventeen residents of Mecklenburg County nursing homes and residential care facilities — including 10 from one facility — have died from COVID-19, the state reported Monday.
Overall nearly half the state’s 306 coronavirus-related deaths have come from nursing homes and residential care facilities, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported Monday.
And as many as 90% of residents at a Salisbury nursing home have confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Ten people there have died, according to DHHS.
The 17 nursing home deaths in Mecklenburg are more than double the number identified by the county on Friday.
Ten of the people who died were residents of Autumn Care nursing home in Cornelius, state data show. The Observer could not reach Autumn Care in Cornelius on Monday. Phone calls and emails were not returned.
There have been 53 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 at that location, according to DHHS. The center is owned by Saber Healthcare Group, according to the company’s website. The Cornelius location has 102 beds, according to the state.
The state’s largest outbreak of COVID-19 at a so-called congregate living facility was reported in Rowan County at the Citadel at Salisbury. The facility, which state records show is licensed for 160 beds, has had 144 reported COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths.
The state’s second largest outbreak was reported in Orange County at Pruitt Health – Carolina Point. That nursing home has reported 108 COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths. The highest death total — 14 — was at Louisburg Healthcare and Rehab Center in Franklin County, according to the state.
Altogether the state reported 72 facilities statewide with ongoing outbreaks, including 40 where there had been at least one death.
Nursing home outbreaks in Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg County reported 10 long-term care facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks, defined as two or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection. That includes:
▪ The Social at Cotswold, with 23 confirmed cases and three deaths.
▪ Pavilion Health Center at Brightmore, where there are 26 cases and three deaths.
▪ And Carrington Place in Matthews, with 18 cases and one death.
There are six other “congregate living settings” in Mecklenburg County that have seen two or more cases of COVID-19, but no deaths, according to the state.
On Friday, county health officials said eight “deaths occurred among patients living in long-term care facilities.” That number, officials said then, was current through April 22.
A total of 43 people in Mecklenburg County have died in the pandemic, according to state officials.
Beginning this week, the state congregate living facility data will be released on Tuesdays and Fridays by 4 p.m. The release of state information comes after significant pressure from media and advocacy groups. Before, some counties identified such facilities and some did not.
Each death, a personal loss
At Five Oaks Manor in Concord, there have been 74 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the state. With 160 beds, that’s nearly half the home’s population. Six residents have died.
One was Michael Mayhew’s mother.
Pamela Mayhew, 68, had lived at Five Oaks since an aneurysm a few years ago. Normally, Michael said, he would visit her two to three times a week until the facility was locked down in early March.
Pamela, a former health care worker, loved to play bingo, dance and get her hair and nails done. Even at 68 years old, Mayhew said he never saw his mother with a grey hair.
He said he first found out his mother tested positive for COVID-19 on April 11. The next day he learned her health had declined, but she seemed alert on a FaceTime call. On April 15 he said he expected to FaceTime with her again in the morning. Instead he received a call that she had died.
“I was kind of devastated,” said Mayhew, 46. “I was like, this can’t be real.”
When he finally saw her, she was still lying in her bed.
“I had to mourn her right then and there. We had an hour to get her out of there. I couldn’t even process it at all.”
A nurse came by and offered him a list of “very few” morticians that would take her.
Because she had tested positive, she couldn’t have a ceremony and had to be cremated, he said.
He said the final diagnosis was that she died of lung cancer with COVID-19, which he felt is unlikely since her cancer largely had not presented any recent symptoms.
“I don’t even know what’s going on right now, what to make of all this,” he said. “It’s like they’re just treating my mom and other people just to say ‘they were old anyway. It happens. Whatever.’”
Staff writer Alison Kuznitz contributed.
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 3:25 PM.
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