KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The daughter of a resident at Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation in Kansas City, Kansas, hopes to see a facility set up for COVID-19 patients who need constant care.
The Unified Government Public Health Department reported that 84 residents at Riverbend tested positive for COVID-19. Four of those residents are in the hospital, including 89-year-old Georgia Claridy, a wheelchair patient who also has dementia and a broken leg that she suffered during her stay at Riverbend. Her daughter, Gee Gee Robertson, is angry.
"I'm just devastated,” Robertson said. “My family and I are devastated at the way all this was handled out there at the facility.”
Robertson is calling on Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to set up a facility for COVID-19 positive people who need constant medical care.
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Kelly said Friday that that is not an issue she has even discussed yet. Now, all Robertson can do is hope her mother remains in Providence Medical Center until she is COVID-free. Then, Robertson said she will find her mother a new place to live.
Robertson's only comfort is that her mother is no longer at Riverbend. Claridy was taken by ambulance to Providence Medical Center in KCK when her COVID symptoms worsened.
"Because my mother is getting the absolute best care at Providence Medical Center, I cannot praise those doctors and nurses and aids enough for what they are doing for her," Robertson said.
Robertson's mother is improving and could soon be released from Providence Medical Center, which raises a new concern. Robertson said she refuses to send her mother back to Riverbend; but because her mother is still COVID-positive, Robertson told 41 Action News that other nursing homes and rehab centers won't accept her mother.
"She's been tested positive,” Robertson said. “I can't move her anyplace. I don't know what to do.”
