Coronavirus infection strikes close to home for Times staff writer

DAYTON—The thought never crossed my mind that COVID-19 would infect anybody at the senior living center where my 92-year-old mother lives. I just didn’t think it was likely because most of the infections have been concentrated on the West side of the state.

But, last week an 80-year-old resident at the Bonaventure of Tri-Cities, senior living community in Richland, Wash., where Mom lives, died after contracting the infection probably through travel to the West side of the state.

Mom said she learned about the death from a Bonaventure staff person who visited each of the residents to tell them about it.

The Tri-City Herald reported on Friday that the woman who died had traveled to the Redmond, Wash., area on March 2-4 and was not feeling well when she returned home. She self-quarantined in her apartment, but went to the Kadlec Regional Medical Center emergency room on March 12, where she was admitted, and died two days later. A diagnosis of COVID-19 was confirmed after her death.

No dining room service has been offered at Bonaventure of Tri-Cities since Tuesday, March 17, and social activities have been limited to five or fewer residents at a time, with social distancing restrictions in place.

“We have been getting meals in our rooms since the quarantine started. We went down one evening for dinner, each floor at separate times,” Mom said. “There was only one other person when I went. The next morning, we had a flyer stating meals would again be brought to us.”

No visitors have been allowed since early last week and residents are not allowed to leave the facility, or go out into the community, due to the risk of contagion.

This is something Mom found out when she left the facility to retrieve some toilet paper from my sister’s car, and couldn’t, initially, get back inside.

Now the facility is offering to help residents place grocery orders, shop for them, or share what is already in the kitchen.

Residents in the assisted living section of the facility are having their temperatures checked three times a day and residents in the independent living section of the facility, where Mom lives, are having their temperature checked two to three times each day.

Mom said, “I think Bonaventure has been as proactive as it can at this time.”

There have been no other confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the facility as of Thursday last week.

According to the Benton Franklin Health District website, the BFHD is in the early stages of investigating the case and will be working to determine who came in close contact with the patient who died. Assistance has been requested from the Infection Control Assessment and Response team from the Washington State Department of Health.

All of us have been hunkering down, in more ways that we can imagine lately, and we should continue to hunker down so this nasty virus doesn’t infect our loved ones or take any more lives.