Last year the lives of 36 veterans were lost during the catastrophic LaSalle Veterans' Home COVID-19 outbreak, a disaster that has been blamed on the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs director, an unqualified chief of staff, repeated failures throughout the entire department and, according to state Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), no accountability from the Pritzker administration.
Demmer spoke on Pritzker's delayed response to the outbreak in an April 30 IL House GOP video, noting that it took Pritzker six weeks to call in the National Guard to support the nursing home as it was rocked by COVID-19.
"When we first heard what happened at LaSalle Veterans' Home it quickly became apparent that it was one of the most tragic circumstances that we've come across during the course of this long and difficult pandemic," Demmer said.
The representative accused the Department of Veterans' Affairs of failing to act on the outbreak despite knowledge that LaSalle housed seniors who are most vulnerable to COVID-19
"No action was taken to support and protect and defend those who have fought for our country," Demmer said.
An inspector general report released last week that put the VA department's mismanagement and ultimate responsibility for the 36 deaths in the spotlight is a "stunning portrait of a failure in leadership at every level," according to Demmer.
The report says that former VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia relinquished her responsibilities as director to a nonmedical chief of staff. The chief of staff, in turn, and left each individual facility to fend for themselves among a swirl of contradictory health guidelines and direction.
The lack of leadership caused a 10-day delay in response to positive COVID-tests at LaSalle, a delay that had fatal consequences. In the week-and-a-half before VA leadership acknowledged the LaSalle outbreak, 10 lives had been lost.
Chapa LaVia resigned from her position as VA director in January and chief of staff Anthony Kolbeck resigned last month. The former LaSalle administrator, Angela Mehlbrech, was dismissed from her position by the governor in December.
"This report shows a lack of leadership," Demmer said. "This report shows that individuals failed in their mission of protecting our veterans. And this report should not be the last word in the story. Gov. Pritzker must come forward immediately and detail who is being held accountable and how we are going to make systematic changes to ensure that people bear responsibility for this tragedy, and that we can make steps and changes to ensure that it never happens again."
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