A class action lawsuit has been launched by the families of two residents who died from COVID-19 complications at a Revera-owned personal care home in Winnipeg – the company operates Valleyview Care Home in Brandon.
The lawsuit, filed on May 10th by Diamond and Diamond Lawyers, focuses on Maples Personal Care Home.
In an emailed release, the lawyers say a “COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the facility in October which included 74 staff members and 157 residents. By the time the outbreak had been declared over, 56 deaths had occurred. The suit also names AXR Operating Inc. (a partner of Revera) and The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority as additional defendants.
An independent review conducted by the Manitoba government declared that the site was not prepared for the reduction in available staff (after exposure) and that new staff brought in to help were insufficiently trained in prevention and control. Plaintiffs also allege that subpar documentation, a lack of sanitization protocols and poor communication contributed to the deaths at the home.
The lawsuit, with co-counsel Chris Wullum of Tapper Cuddy, includes two representative Plaintiffs.
1. Lawrence Lewsey, as representative of the estate of Ethel Lewsey
2. Eddie Calisto-Tavares, as representative of the estate of Manuel Calisto
“This is a worst-case scenario that continued to spiral as time went on,” said Darryl Singer, Head of Commercial and Civil litigation at Diamond and Diamond Lawyers. “Just like our lawsuits against providers in Ontario, these devastating patterns of mismanagement are across the board.”
The class members include all persons who contracted COVID-19 while being a resident at Maples Personal Care Home between 2020 to present and all family members and estates of said persons. The size of the Plaintiff class is growing hourly as the firm continues to field calls from grieving families across the province, as well as calls from COVID related deaths at other facilities.
“We hope that this claim, on behalf of the many families impacted by Covid-19 at the Maples Personal Care Home, will shed more light on what went wrong and how this tragedy could have been prevented,” said Co-Counsel, Chris Wullum of Tapper Cuddy.
Diamond and Diamond invites those who feel they have experienced insufficient care at the hands of a nursing home facility in Manitoba to contact their firm. The firm expects that further class action suits will be launched in the near future as the pandemic continues to spread across the country.”
