'He's an inmate': Anguish mounts over virus-hit nursing home

KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) — Desperate to talk to their dad, Scott Sedlacek and his brother, Steve, stood outside his open nursing home window and shouted. They could barely hear his weak replies, but one came through clearly.

“I feel like (expletive),” the 86-year-old told them.

Chuck Sedlacek arrived at the Life Care Center of Kirkland three weeks ago for physical therapy, just before the suburban nursing home became the epicenter of the nation's worst coronavirus outbreak.

Now he's in worse shape than before.

He’s in isolation after contracting the virus, but his symptoms haven't progressed enough to warrant moving him to a hospital. He came seeking rehab for a broken ankle and banged-up knee after a fall, but he hasn't gotten out of bed in two weeks. Though he previously lived independently in a senior community where he could walk the halls and visit old friends, he’s now losing his mobility from lack of exercise.

His five children have hardly spoken with him because his near blindness and neuropathy in his hands make it tough for him to use a phone. And, they say, the overwhelmed Life Care staff has given him just two sponge baths since he arrived.

“He’s an inmate as much as he is a patient,” said Scott Sedlacek, 64, who also caught the virus. “We all love and really care about our dad, and we are absolutely scared. Loneliness kills a lot of people, too. We think this is a license for death.”

The Sedlaceks’ experience is a grim tale of what residents and their loved ones face as the coronavirus spreads around the country and enters other assisted living facilities. While most people recover from the virus and many have mild symptoms, elderly residents are especially at risk.

The virus has been confirmed in at least 11 nursing homes or senior...