Rock Island Today

State Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Mercer) says the LaSalle Veterans Home tragedy never had to happen.

“As both a veteran of the U.S. Army and National Guard and the former superintendent of the Henry County Veterans Assistance Commission, caring for veterans is one of the most important charges we have in our public service,” Swanson said during a recent news conference focused on the inspector general report on the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans' Home where 36 people died. 

“At the press conference we had last week on this topic I explained to everyone how in December of 2017 following the outbreak of Legionnaires disease I along with several of my local veterans organization representatives traveled to and visited the Quincy home and spent a full day talking to their leaders about the mitigating steps and procedures they had executed and they were executing to contain the outbreak there,” Swanson said.

Swanson remembers much of the conversation being focused on the importance of leadership of the staff, being communicative, proper standard operating procedures and protocols to minimize future exposure for veterans and the staff.

“We all realized adherence to those standards was a matter of life and death,” he said. “About a month later, Rep. Chapa LaVia, who later became IDVA Director Chapa LaVia, Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Aurora), Rep. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) and other members of the House Democratic caucus visited Quincy personally and were briefed to the same way I was a month earlier.”

The Illinois Department of Human Services Inspector General report essentially took the same view as Swanson, blasting leadership for not having a plan of operation and arguing that failure ultimately played a role in the tragedy.

After the first four cases in the outbreak were reported Nov. 1, the virus spread to 60 residents and 43 employees as confused staff operated in an environment that was "inefficient, reactive and chaotic."

Some of the biggest criticism was aimed at Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including accusations he had appointed then-VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia but allowed her to abdicate her responsibilities to a non-medical chief of staff.

“Heroes died within the walls of our veterans' home because of failure to follow health protocols costing them their lives,” Swanson said.

The governor has since named Navy veteran Terry Prince as the acting VA director to replace Chapa LaVia.