COVID-19 hits small senior home hard
Of the facility’s 14 residents, 5 have died in recent weeks
Unimaginable loss has visited Vista Hermosa, a Santa Fe senior living community that had managed to avoid the coronavirus among its 14 residents before December.
In recent weeks, five residents have died, including three in the first few days of 2021. The latest was a woman in her 80s who died Sunday.
Until December, the facility had no coronavirus cases among its residents, said Luke Nachtrab, the owner of Ohiobased Vista Living Care. The company manages two senior living facilities — Vista Hermosa and Sierra Vista — in Santa Fe and another in Las Cruces.
Two staff members contracted the virus prior to December. A Vista Hermosa staff member contracted the virus in November and took 21 days off from work, just to be safe, Nachtrab said. Despite that precaution, when the employee returned, the virus somehow still spread through the facility, although it’s impossible to precisely pinpoint how it did so, he added.
Since then, nine residents and 12 staff members contracted COVID-19 in December, according to Nachtrab and the state Department of Health.
“It’s just devastating,” said Nachtrab.
“For the last 45 days have been spending more time coordinating and getting people emotional support to cope with the intensity. The closest thing I can compare this to is war.”
Yolanda Arrey, the social services director for Sierra Vista, Vista Hermosa’s sister facility, also said the deaths were devastating.
“They become our family. They become part of why we work at this hard job — because we love it. It’s not for the money,” said Arrey, 70, who came became a social worker later in life after working for decades as an accountant.
“We all are grieving, and every time we come into the house we remember the elder we just saw taken away from us, almost like they’ve been snatched; they’ve been stolen,” she added. “It’s really a hard position to be in, but you know we are so blessed with the encouragement and aid during all of our shared fears and losses. We give each other this hope to remain positive and determined to continue this mission. We all need each other.”
Deaths have raged through senior living facilities across the state and nation because residents often are in close proximity to staff. Also, residents are at higher risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19 because of their age and the health complications that often come with it.
In recent weeks, cases have ballooned inside congregate care facilities and the general population.
According to the state Department of Health, COVID-19 cases have been detected in residents or staff at 11 nursing homes or long-term care facilities in the past 28 days: Brookdale Santa Fe, Casa Real Genesis, El Castillo, Kingston Residence, Legacy Santa Fe, Mi Casa Bonita, Morningstar Senior Living, Pacifica Senior Living, Santa Fe Care Center, Sierra Vista, The Montecito and Vista Hermosa.
But likely because Vista Hermosa, located at 2929 Calle Vera Cruz, was so small, the virus brought a particular ferocity to the community. A staff member with Vista Hermosa who declined to be identified described the extreme emotional toll in a text message Nachtrab shared with The New Mexican:
“I’m doing my best not [to] give up,” the employee wrote. “I feel like I’m living a nightmare. Every day, I pray for this to end. It’s mentally and physically draining us. It breaks my heart to lose my elders. [Name redacted] passed today, it’s very hard. I can’t even express the way I feel. My mom has been in the hospital for 6 days. She came home today with oxygen but she going to need home health care. My dad is positive as well. I worried for him due to his cancer. I want to be with them to take care [of] them but my elders need me too. It’s just so hard to be at both places sometimes.”
Arrey said staff made great efforts to sanitize the facility and wear face coverings and other personal protective equipment to fight the spread of COVID-19. Reflecting on the vigilant effort, Arrey said it was all the harder when the virus struck.
“We felt so relieved and proud we were just so vigilant,” she said. “So when it hit … it was devastating because we just did everything the Department to Health, everything our doctors recommended. It hit us like a bomb.”