WARREN — In what seems to be the primary lawsuit of its sort regionally, the household of a nurse who died from COVID-19 is suing his employer in a wrongful dying motion filed in Trumbull County Frequent Pleas Courtroom.
Raymond J. Lanzo, 55, Boardman, labored as a nurse at Generations Behavioral Well being, 196 Colonial Drive, Liberty.
The go well with filed on behalf of Deborah Lanzo, the administrator of her husband’s property, by Boardman lawyer Lynn Sfara Bruno, states the psychological well being facility allegedly failed or refused to observe COVID-19 directives issued by the state in an effort to scale back the unfold of the virus. This, the submitting states, uncovered Lanzo to the illness.
Lanzo’s dying April 30 was a “direct and proximate results of the actions of the defendant,” the go well with states.
“Ray was a great particular person, a great pal, a great husband and an exemplary nurse. He was a wholesome, strong man who selected a brave career and was good at it. He didn’t need to die like this. And, he and his household had been additional wronged by their incapability to be with him as he died. His dying was tragic and avoidable,” Sfara Bruno mentioned.
Roxanne Gividen, CEO of the psychological well being facility, mentioned she has but to see the lawsuit and so will chorus from commenting on the case.
The corporate was “negligent” in its failure to offer “acceptable security tools,” the go well with states.
The go well with doesn’t declare the power was fallacious to function throughout the pandemic, however that it did not implement the insurance policies and procedures, and supply the precise tools, that it ought to need to observe the state’s pandemic directives.
The go well with was filed Friday in Frequent Pleas Decide Peter J. Kontos’ court docket. No hearings have been set. The go well with seeks damages for medical payments, ache and struggling, burial and funeral bills, court docket and lawyer charges, and different damages.
Lanzo is survived by a son and his spouse, together with siblings and different prolonged relations, in line with his obituary with Higgins-Reardon Funeral Dwelling.
Comparable fits have been filed throughout the nation, naming retailers, distribution facilities, meat processing vegetation, nursing houses and different care amenities as defendants.