Woman Blames Long Beach Care Facility After Sister Dies

LONG BEACH, NY — When Nancy Ruderman was admitted to the Park Avenue Extended Care facility in Long Beach January, it was supposed to be for a few months of rehabilitation due to her multiple sclerosis. Her family didn't expect it would be one of the last times they would ever see her.

But Cari Ruderman, Nancy's sister, said the 57-year-old never left the facility until the day before she died of a respiratory infection that a doctor believes was from the new coronavirus. And now she wants to know why the facility didn't do more to save her sister's life.

Nancy was diagnosed with MS after Hurricane Sandy hit the area. Her condition deteriorated, and she kept getting weaker. In early January, her doctor wanted her to get a blood transfusion, and her family finally convinced her to go to rehab so she could get some strength and mobility back.

Nancy was admitted to Park Avenue in late January and was supposed to be there for three months of rehabilitation. A family friend would spend weekdays with Nancy, and Cari said she would spend the weekends with her sister, so she was never really alone. But then the coronavirus crisis hit New York, and the facility was put on lockdown and no visitors were allowed.

Within two weeks of the lockdown, Cari said Park Avenue told her that her sister became sick with a respiratory infection. All communication with her sister stopped, Cari said, and Nancy stopped responding to phone calls or text messages. When Cari and her family called the facility, she said, they were told that Nancy didn't want to speak to them.

"My sister could be stubborn at times," Cari said. "When they said she didn't want to talk to you, we believed them. For one or two days. But not eight or nine days."

Cari said the facility gave them different reasons about why her family couldn't talk to Nancy: She didn't want to talk, she was resting, or she couldn't unlock her phone. They wouldn't help the family set up a video chat with Nancy, either, Cari said.

Finally, after nearly two weeks of no communication, Cari said she finally spoke to her sister April 11. But that conversation was short-lived.

"She was choking up a storm," Cari said. "She was coughing and coughing and coughing."

After a few minutes on the phone, Cari told her sister to hang up, since trying to talk was obviously difficult for her. That was the last time she spoke to her sister.

Three days later, on April 15, Cari received a call from Park Avenue. Nancy's health was failing, Cari said, and staff asked if Cari wanted them to take her sister to the hospital. She said yes.

Nancy was admitted to Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital. The doctor attending to her called Cari and said that her sister almost certainly had COVID-19 and pneumonia, although they didn't perform a test for the virus. The doctor told Cari that, on a scale of one to 10, her sister was a 9.5 in terms of seriousness.

By 10 a.m. the next day, Nancy was dead.

"Part of me wants to be on the good side and say the doctor [at Park Avenue] thought they could treat her," Cari said. "But I think after hearing the horror stories of other places, they didn't want [her death] on their record."

According to New York state statistics, Park Avenue Extended Care facility has had three confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 11 suspected deaths.

The facility declined to comment on Nancy Ruderman's death or discuss the measures it is taking to prevent residents from contracting COVID-19.

Cari wishes the facility had done more to get Nancy the help that could have saved her life.

"[I wish they gave] us the chance to get her out of there or to a hospital in the 10 days from when they first told us she had a respiratory infection," she said. "I don't know if she would have pulled through, but she would have had a chance to try."