5-25-2021-      A Long Term Care Nightmare - Part I

Introduction to a Human Story-  As out hearts and minds are consumed by the devasttion of yet more hurrianes in 2024, I wanted to share this unique and true story! This blog was originally written by me with great care and detail after much research after being inspired by the book, Flood of Lies- The St. Rita’s Nursing Home Tragedy by James A. Cobb Jr. … and my personal history in working with nursing home residents for many years.

What Sal & Mabel Mangano did, in St. Bernard’s Parish, just outside of New Orleans, LA during Hurricane Katina while in a position of responsibility, was WRONG and unconscionable! They were the only nursing home operators to ever be tried for the deaths of residents.

I will not divulge the outcome here. It is fascinating and tragic all in one breath!

There are many facets to this true story.

*** I will publish it in several segments and hope thatmost of you will stick with me in the complete telling, because it is a very worthy story to be told and remembered. Comments, and sharing is always appreciated!

Thank you! Donna

To Set the Stage-
ABC News reported that Sal and Mabel Mangano were “helpless in the moment” as they watched St. Rita’s nursing facility filled with water.

On August 29, 2005, the staff and residents of St. Rita’s heard rumbling and saw a wall of water approaching their facility. I’m sure they must’ve felt like the Captain in the Poseidon Adventure movie.

Although Sal and Mabel made the fateful decision to “shelter in place” versus evacuate and would rescue 52 others, 34 drowned in their beds or wheelchairs during a period of 20 to 30 minutes with water flowing to the ceiling.  Reports vary as to whether there were 34 or 35 victims.

Three months later it was reported that an unidentified person was located a month later behindSal Jr’s home,  deceased with a feeding tube  still attached. 

The human toll can be measured in many ways: statistics on a page, body counts, number of funerals, persons unaccounted for, and the story of one family to “cast a light”  in which emotions take center stage. 

Tufanio Gallodoro’s family had made the decision to finally “get him the hell out of harm’s way” in St. Bernard’s Parish, New Orleans in 2004, to escape the possible devastation of Hurricane Ivan.  As reported in Esquire, his daughter Cheryl had taken on the decision this time, as his son Steve was a local firefighter and had many emergency management duties in the town. Their ultimate destination was Tennessee. However, after a 16 hour drive, Tufanio became severely compromised, could not sit upright when they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi.  As Steve related, his father was 82, had two previous strokes, and was confined to a wheelchair. During their trip, the kindness of a stranger prevailed, where he offered to have Cheryl and Tufanio stay with his family in a large home. 

 That trip was the deciding moment, in that they realized they could no longer care for him without help. Even with in-home help, Tufanio needed skilled care. Therefore, they decided among the four facilities in St. Bernard Parish, with the closest being a family run facility known as St. Rita’s . (FYI, St. Rita’s saintly status is attributed to “Lost and Impossibe Causes.”) Steve thought they had done their due diligence and adequately checked out the facility and the Manganos.

A year before Katrina arrived, all had seemed in order-The Manganos  were in business for 22 years, on a 20 acre property, with Sal Jr. “Little Sal”  as the maintenance man. He and his parents practically lived at St. Rita’s night and day. It was also reported, Mabel with her “big white hairdo” was very nurturing, doted on those without visitors, carried change for all to buy them sundries and even taught one woman to drive a car up and own their driveway. 

Steve and his family helped serve as an essential caregiver, visiting often to feed him, shave him and cut his hair with St Rita’s nearly open door policy.

The Saturday before the hurricane, Steve knew the storm was coming. 

He also knew that his father nearly died from transfer trauma-(multiple stresses on the resident which ultimately accelerates their death due to being moved from one facility to another.)  

He could not personally remove him because of his firefighting duties.

In Steve’s words,
“The Manganos assured me they'd contracted with bus services, they had staff coming in, they had two facilities to transport the residents to if the call for evacuation was made. They said, We are the professionals, leave him with us, he's better off. '' My sister had some emotional struggles about leaving him, but I told her the Manganos had a plan in place, let's leave him with them.”

Early Sunday morning, after the rest of his family safely evacuated, Steve approached Sal Mangano and offered whatever number of men needed to evacuate. He was dumbfounded when he learned  that they had chosen to “ride it out” as they had done so many times in the past. Steve was concerned and the coroner, Dr. Bryan Bertucci called the Manganos to recommend (although not  stated as an ‘“order”) that they should leave and offered two school buses to any destination they would like.  Mabel declined.

As the storm progressed, Steve kept very busy, rescuing anyone he encountered from rooftops, trees etc and relied on inaccurate weather reports at St. Rita’s location and on the fact that he would have received word if the situation was grave. How wrong he was! 

Other sources reported that by Tuesday, Mabel changed her mind and  called two hours later and asked for buses, but it was “much too little too late.”

What Steve saw from his boat was a nightmare. Here was an experienced firefighter who could not save his own father! Life is full of ironies... 

“Tufanio Gallodoro couldn't swim. Tufanio Gallodoro was deathly afraid of the water. Tufanio Gallodoro drowned. For his son, the horror of St. Rita's will always be a moral horror, and he will never stop holding the Manganos morally responsible.”   According to a report by CBS News, on January 31, 2008, 

 "The reality sunk in for a vast majority of our residents Friday and Saturday. That made them pack up and go."

That Saturday night, Steve’s sister Cheryl was checking in on her father one last time at St. Rita's, before she took her family north. 

"My dad looked up and calls me 'Shay.' That was a little pet name he had for me. And said, 'Shay, you coming to get me tomorrow? They have a hurricane coming,'" she remembers. "I looked at him and I said, 'Well, dad, you know. You're going to be taken care of.” Cheryl knew it was too risky to move her frail father herself, so she was relying on St. Rita's to take him out of harm's way. He continued to ask.

As Cheryl recounted, a nurse came in and sat close to her, taking her hands in hers. The nurse advised that Cheryl needed to leave. 

She assured her that “there was an evacuation plan and that Tufanio would be well cared for.”

By 8:00 a.m on Sunday, August 28, parish officials broadcast their starkest warning yet to those who might still be in the parish. "You need to leave. You must leave St. Bernard Parish and head north," they warned.

Prior to Sunday, Polly Boudreaux , the Parish clerk, said  St. Bernard officials were “desperately telling residents to leave. "There were messages over and over, not just parish government messages on our cable station,  but the news media was out saying the same thing," she said.

Larry Ingargiola was the director of Homeland Security for St. Bernard Parish. "I believed that we were gonna see 20, 22 feet of water.”

In hindsight, as a more objective reader, would it not make sense to err on the side of caution even though historically other hurricanes did not rise to the level of Katrina? To rely on past history and “what you’ve always done,” was indeed a fatal error in judgement!

Stay tuned for more….