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Friday, July 11, 2025

Rezin reviewing '2,300 documents' related to LaSalle Veterans Home COVID-19 outbreak, deaths

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Sen. Sue Rezin (Morris) reviewing documents related to the LaSalle Veterans Home. | Stock photo

Sen. Sue Rezin (Morris) reviewing documents related to the LaSalle Veterans Home. | Stock photo

Following a COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home that led to 34 deaths, state Sen Sue Rezin (R-Morris) received more than 2,300 documents from a state Freedom of Information Act request related to the situation.

"I received over 2,300 documents today that I'm in the process of going through, which will take a little bit of time," she said in a March 19 video on her Twitter page. "But it's important that we find out what exactly did happen during the outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home to cause the largest, deadliest outbreak in a state facility in the history of Illinois."

One question Rezin raised in her tweet that accompanied the video was why the Illinois Department of Public Health took 12 days to visit the facility. She said she is looking for information in the documents that might shed light on why the outbreak was permitted to spread through the entire home.

"It's going to take a while, but it's important, so we'll take all weekend to go through the paperwork," she said.

Some family members of the deceased veterans are considering whether to sue over the deaths, ABC 7 reported. The suits take aim at both the facility and state, following a state investigation that found inadequate safety procedures.

"They observed inappropriate screening protocol at the staff entrance to the facility," Mike Bonamarte, a Chicago attorney, was quoted as saying by ABC 7. "They reported staff congregating, not social distancing; not always wearing masks or having their masks around their chins."

The LaSalle Veterans Home administrator was fired in December, following the November deaths, and the facility's nursing director was placed on administrative leave, ABC 7 reported.

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