At least one person has tested positive for COVID-19 at Renaissance Park Multi Center in Fort Worth. Life Care Centers of America, which runs the facility, reported the positive case in a statement dated April 17.
"But I know there's at least one more than that because my mother-in-law is one more than that," said Toni Eddings, whose mother-in-law has lived at Renaissance Park for more than year. "She’s paraplegic, she lived by herself for like 20 years, but it got to where she couldn’t take care of herself any more and it was a little more than I can handle."
She said her mother-in-law has been isolated with her roommate for weeks.
Eddings said her mother-in-law's roommate showed symptoms of the virus. Over the weekend her mother-in-law was taken to the hospital for a recurring health issue and was also tested for the coronavirus.
The test came back positive.
"She’s actually asymptomatic for COVID right now," Eddings said. "She does have it, she’s positive, but she hasn’t really shown any other symptoms."
Life Care Centers of America issued the following statement Tuesday.
"We have been and will continue to follow all CMS, CDC and state and local health department guidelines concerning COVID-19. Our associates are being diligent on practicing proper hand hygiene and the use of personal protective equipment, which is recurring education they normally receive, beginning with their orientation at our facility. Every associate is also screened when they arrive for work and when they leave, including checking temperature, to ensure no additional sickness is brought into our building. Anyone with a fever over 99.6 is sent home and asked to contact their personal physician "
NBC 5 requested asked how many cases are at the facility and the company said on April 29 that as of April 28, 17 residents had tested positive at the time. Seven residents remained in their facility and ten hospitalized. As of April 28th, there were 42 residents who live at the facility.
"Four associates have tested positive for COVID-19. These associates will not return to work until they have met specific guidelines from the state health department and CDC about returning to work after COVID-19," the company said in a statement.
Eddings said she's frustrated that even though visitors haven't been able to enter, COVID-19 is still there and is worried it's from caregivers.
"It’s not just Renaissance, it’s all the nursing homes they have, they have shut us out for over a month and have not let us visit, yet almost 300 nursing homes in Texas have COVID running through it," Eddings said.
She said she's worried about the resident's mental state of not being able to see loved ones. For Eddings, she and her family would visit and check up on her mother-in-law at least once a week, before the pandemic.
“I want them to let us suit up and come see our loved ones, put us in hazmat suits if you have to, but they need to see us and we need to see them," she said.
For now, her mother-in-law will remain in the hospital.
