The family of a 98-year-old Santa Clara woman is claiming the nursing home where she lived is liable after the woman’s roommate allegedly beat her to death with a cane.
Vera Plares was a resident at the for-profit Mission Skilled Nursing & Subacute Center in Santa Clara. In December last year, police say Plares’ roommate, 78-year-old, Connie Delucca, bludgeoned her while she lay in bed.
Now, Plares’ family is suing the nursing home. They claim Mission Skilled employees knowingly put Plares in danger by pairing her with Delucca, who had a history of violence against fellow nursing home patients.
According to the suit, the family is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages for wrongful death, elder abuse and violation of patient rights. In addition, they allege that Mission Skilled failed to comply with California health and safety laws when they delayed urgent medical care.
Three hours after the attack, Mission Skilled employees found Plares with severe bruising on her arms, hands, neck and face. Her tooth had been chipped and blood dripped from her mouth.
Her blood was found on Delucca’s cane.
In early July, police charged Delucca with felony elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. After failing to appear for her arraignment, police booked Delucca at the Santa Clara County jail and denied her bail.
The judge suspended proceedings, said Sean Webby, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office, until doctors could evaluate Delucca’s mental competency to stand trial. If doctors deem Delucca mentally incompetent, she will be sent to a state psychiatric hospital.
The claim says that despite Delucca’s having already attacked another patient, employees moved her into Plares’ room, something the complaint calls a “calculated decision.”
Further, Delucca had a history of 5150 holds, according to the suit. A 5150 hold is an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization, one imposed when someone is deemed dangerous or “gravely disabled” by mental illness or drug-or-alcohol-induced psychosis.
When Mission Skilled employees asked Delucca what happened, she “said something to the effect of ‘What if I did do it, and I can’t remember?’” according to the complaint.
Twenty Hours of Bureaucratic Dithering While Plares Succumbs to Injuries
The account of the two days between when Plares was attacked and when she ultimately died from her injuries, conjures a picture of a careless, corner-cutting by an institution seeking above all to protect itself. Ironically, if self-protection was the goal, the nursing home failed miserably, opening itself to brutal financial penalties, possible criminal liability and a public-relations nightmare.
Plares was in the hospice wing to treat a persistent bedsore, according to the complaint. She wasn’t receiving end-of-life care. Doctors considered her capable of making her own medical decisions, and her family didn’t have a power-of-attorney. Almost a day passed before anyone took Plares to the hospital, and then only at her family’s urging.
At 6 p.m., when a nurse gave Plares her medication, she was fine. At 8:30 p.m., and again at 9:00 p.m., an employee reportedly checked the room, but apparently didn’t check on Plares, whose curtain was closed. The complaint says that at 9:30 a different nurse, noting that Plares’ curtain was closed, discovered she had been brutally attacked and was seriously injured.
Another three hours passed, according to the complaint, until the nursing home called Plares’ daughter-in-law, Evelyn Plares, at 11 p.m. asking for permission to take her to the hospital.
Another two hours passed until someone from another entity, Suncrest, called Evelyn to tell her they decided not to send Vera to the hospital, “per hospice protocol.” Evelyn went to the nursing home the next morning, meeting Vera’s niece, Melanie Plares, there.
Melanie questioned the staff and got non-answers, according to the complaint.
“‘Who made the decision to not take her (Vera) to the emergency room?’ There was no response,” according to the Plares’ complaint. “However, a hospice nurse overheard her and stated it was a decision made per hospice protocol by a hospice nurse and the hospice medical doctor, (Dr. Wang). On information and belief, at no point did Dr. Wang physically go into the facility to examine Vera Plares after her brutal beating.”
The complaint continues, “Melanie then informed the nurse Vera Plares was not on end-of-life care and was awake and talking the day prior to the attack … [Melanie] insisted they take her off hospice and send her to Valley Medical Center where she could receive appropriate care. She then asked a social worker named Chris ‘What did the police say and can I have the case number?’ Chris responded, ‘I don’t know if I am allowed to give it to you.’”
In fact, there was no police report.
The family then made a police report and called an ambulance. Paramedics took Plares to the hospital at 4 p.m. — 20 hours after she had been attacked. She died the next day.
“Defendants owed Vera Plares and [her family] a duty of care and breached this duty by failing to take action as described above,” concludes the complaint. “As a result of defendants’ conduct, Vera Plares was killed by Connie [Delucca] at Mission on December 15, 2023 … The conduct of defendants was malicious, oppressive, and fraudulent, such that the imposition of punitive damages is warranted against them.”
Dustin S. Delp, who represents the nursing home conglomerate, denied the claims.
“Defendant asserts that its acts and conduct upon which Plaintiff’s Complaint is based were justified, fair, and reasonable under the given circumstances and were undertaken in good faith, with the absence of malicious intent to injure Plaintiff, and constitute lawful, proper and justified means to further its sole purpose of engaging in and continuing its business,” he wrote.
Different Names, Same Enterprise
The lawsuit names two business entities: Covenant Care California, doing business as Mission Skilled Nursing & Sub-Acute Center; and Covenant Care Mission, Inc., Suncrest Hospice San José, doing business as Suncrest Hospice. The complaint describes these entities as “alter-egos of one another” forming “a single enterprise.”
These businesses share an address and agent for service of process. The complaint also alleges that they used the same account and that transactions between them are part of a single ledger. Mission and Suncrest have contracts with each other.
Unraveling multiple layers of interlocked businesses in the booming for-profit medical services industry is difficult.
For example, Covenant Care owns 25 nursing homes — ownership that’s shared with multiple other entities including Covenant Care LLC, Covenant Holdco, Covenant Subco — as well as several investment funds and the State Treasurer of Michigan Custodian of Public School Employee Retirement.
But there is one certainty: across every corner and layer of this web, everyone is making money.
You can find a report about Mission Skilled Nursing & Sub-Acute Center at nursinghomedatabase.com. Read the Plares’ complaint here [plares mission lawsuit 2024] and Mission’s reply here [plares mission lawsuit reply to complaint 2024].