JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A son is looking for justice after his 93-year-old mother drowned in a swimming pool at a Jacksonville assisted living facility.
David Levy moved his 93-year-old mother, Julia, into the Discovery Village assisted living facility in April of last year after she began showing signs she’d need extra care.
“It was fairly new. So, the amenities were really nice. And as it turns out, it ended up in a tragic event,” said Levy.
It was just a little more than a month after moving his mother in that emergency crews were called to Discovery Village.
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Body cam footage captured the moment police arrived on scene – Julia was lain out on the edge of the community pool.
“That was a tough morning. It was a very tough morning,” said Levy.
Julia, who just one year prior was living on her own, had drowned in the pool.
“And there’s nobody that can tell us exactly what happened,” said Levy.
Security cameras around the pool weren’t operational.
Despite his contract with the facility guaranteeing his mother would be supervised, Levy said it’s clear that didn’t happen.
“Another resident is who actually pulled my mother from the pool, found my mother in the pool. It wasn’t even a staff member that eventually found her,” said Levy.
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Steve Quatro is an attorney specializing in nursing homes and ALFs.
“The cases we’re seeing are worse and worse,” said Quatro.
He said it’s unfortunately becoming more common for seniors to end up in assisted living facilities, unprepared to provide the level of care they need.
“You put sicker and sicker people into these facilities, you have more and more problems, because again, you don’t have the staff to care for these folks. They’re not properly trained. They’re not nurses, and they really don’t know what to do,” said Quatro.
Levy has filed a lawsuit against Discovery Villages and is seeking at least $30,000 in damages.
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However, no amount of money will buy back the years he’d hoped he had left with his mother Julia.
“The assisted living - That ‘living’ part of that phrase is the most important thing. You don’t want to put your parents in a position where they’re not being assisted to live. In this particular case, my mom was, in some weird way was being assisted to do something completely different. And that’s upsetting,” said Levy.
Discovery Village offered this response to Action News Jax’s request for comment on this story:
“We express our continued condolences to the family. Due to confidentiality and out of respect to the family we are unable to comment at this time.”
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