OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A family claims their loved one who is battling COVID-19 at the Tuscany Village Nursing Home is not getting the proper care.

“We saw him decline pretty rapidly just from dehydration and no food,” Marla Bennett Miller told KFOR.

Bennett Miller is talking about what her brother, 69-year-old William Mark Johnson, is allegedly enduring while battling COVID-19 at the Tuscany Village Nursing Home.

“When they moved him to the COVID area, it just seems to us that they put him in a room and just left him there,” she said.

Bennett Miller told KFOR her brother is one of 47 COVID-19 patients at the home.

He has type 1 diabetes and can’t get up on his own. His family has been forced to watch his situation from outside his window.

“His water was there, but he couldn’t get to it. His food was there, but they wouldn’t make sure he had it,” Bennett Miller said.

Due to that, she said his symptoms went from mild to severe.

“Corporate is running it like a business and forgetting how sad it is to look into their faces of these people that have, you know, not seen their loved ones in nine months now,” she said.

Tuscany Village Nursing Home personnel sent KFOR the following statement:

“Tuscany Village Nursing Center has been contacted by KFOR, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City, regarding allegations made by a Tuscany Village resident’s family with respect to the resident’s care. Tuscany Village’s privacy policies, as well as federal and state law, preclude Tuscany Village from commenting regarding any resident’s medical condition. Tuscany Village investigates all such concerns in conformity with applicable facility policies and regulations and have done so in this instance. With respect to questions regarding the facility’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility initiated a COVID-19 management plan in early March in accordance with guidance issued by the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and other federal, state and local agencies. The program has been revised on an ongoing basis in response to the numerous changes in the agency directives. The health and safety or our residents is of paramount importance to Tuscany Village and we will continue to use our best efforts to provide the highest quality services possible given the numerous and unprecedented challenges that healthcare facilities are confronted with in the face of the pandemic.”

Lee M. Wood, StoneGate Senior Living, LLC

KFOR also spoke with with a representative with the company that owns the home, and they said there is no merit to these allegations.

Staffing issues, though, are a problem at other nursing homes around the state. Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corp posted on their website about a “critical need for staffing assistance following a COVID-19 outbreak at the Quinton Manor Nursing Home. Over 80 percent of staff are quarantined for the next 6-14 days.”

“This is the first request we’ve had for volunteers in several months during this pandemic,” Lezlie Carter, OKMRC stare coordinator, said.

Continued Coronavirus Coverage

LATEST HEADLINES: