The daughter of a South Holland assisted-living facility resident whose death has been ruled a homicide on Tuesday called for an independent monitor to investigate the death of her mother and two other residents who were hospitalized last month, her attorney said.
The death of 98-year-old Dorothy Byrd has been ruled a homicide attributed to the “inappropriate administration of medication by medical personnel,” according to her death certificate supplied by the family’s attorney Thomas M. Paris. Now, Byrd’s daughter, Sandra Peterson, wants someone “who’s not burdened by the state” to review the situation, Paris said.
“The nursing home issued a press release on Feb. 10 saying they put safety first,” Paris said. “This was a challenge to them to put their money where their mouth is.”
Byrd was among six Holland Home residents hospitalized on Feb. 3 for unknown causes. She died the next day and two more of the hospitalized residents, Robert Rundin, 88, and Leon Krynicki, 98, died since March 7.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Byrd’s death a homicide caused by “toxic levels of morphine and hydrocodone” – combined with “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” county spokesman Frank Shuftan said Monday. She had received “a lethal dose of opiates, specifically morphine and Vicodin …,” Paris said, adding that she had never been prescribed morphine.
Autopsies for the two men may take several months, according to medical examiners in Cook County and Lake County, Indiana.
South Holland police, with assistance from the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, have been investigating the deaths.
David Mills, chief operating officer of Villa Healthcare — which oversees the facility — is deferring all questions to South Holland police, who are waiting for toxicology reports to answer questions. Mills said in his statement Tuesday that the three other residents, who survived the Feb. 3 hospitalization, have been living back at the home for more than a month. Mills, however, did not comment on their conditions.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is conducting a separate investigation, said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the agency. She said Tuesday that although agency policy prevents her from commenting on the ongoing investigation, the department has seen similar cases in the past.
Arnold said that when the department investigates an assisted living facility, typically the focus is to assess “whether there is compliance or violation of the Nursing Home Care Act, if the home caused any harm to the residents and if there is potential for harm to other residents.”
South Holland Police Chief Greg Baker commented for the first time Tuesday on Byrd’s death being a homicide and about Rundin’s and Krynicki’s deaths:
“Holland Home has the full attention of the South Holland Police Department and the regional major crime task force,” Baker said in a statement. “Our investigators are handling this case with great care and efficiency and with the complete cooperation of Holland Home’s management team.”
Baker confirmed that investigating the deaths will take time: “The investigative process cannot be rushed, and without the full results from toxicology, the cause of death of Rundin and Krynicki is unknown and it is difficult to build a correlation to the death of Dorothy Byrd.”
Mills, whose statement was in the police press release, said that his organization has “from the beginning” taken the incident “extremely seriously and are fully cooperating with local law enforcement’s ongoing investigation.”
Byrd’s family attorney shared that Byrd herself practiced as a nurse for 40 years.
“She cared for and mentored thousands of patients and nurses, hoping to improve their lives,” Paris said in his statement. “She lived independently until 90 and then in her final years she needed the assistance of nurses, many of whom considered her a role model and mentor.”
Tara Kadioglu is a freelance reporter