Many bodies of elderly discovered at hospital
Causes of more than 40 deaths are undetermined
The discovery at Memorial Medical Center was not the first where workers have recovered a group of bodies from a health-care facility.
Saturday, a recovery team found eight bodies inside Bethany Home, an assisted-living center near City Park. Yesterday, mortuary workers removed human remains from Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family, but authorities would not disclose the exact number of victims.
One side of the entrance to Lafon was spray-painted with the date "9-2" and the words "59 live" and "16 dead," while the other side was spray-painted with the date "9-9" and the notation "14 dead."
In the nursing home, the pale-brown water mark on the first floor was about 21/2 feet up the wall. On the second floor, spray-paint markings indicated where some bodies had been found: one under a hallway bulletin board, one in a community room, two beside an elevator.
Individual rooms were filled with personal belongings - pictures of friends, personal cards, flowers. In one room was a neatly folded copy of The Times-Picayune with the headline, "Katrina Takes Aim."
This article in yesterday's Washington Post contains a photograph captioned Beds are strewn in the entryway of the Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family in New Orleans on Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. Earlier in the day, officials had removed an unspecified number of bodies from the facility, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Rick Bowmer - AP)
This article by AP yesterday contains another photograph by the same photographer, captioned: Photo caption: Two beds are seen in a residential room at the Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family in New Orleans on Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. Earlier in the day officials had removed an unspecified number of bodies from the facility, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina had struck. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Sept. 6th, safekatrina.com:
Robbin Navarre Richards on Sep 6 - 10:41pm
I'm in search of our Aunt, Helena Townsend. She was in the Lafon Nursing Home of Holy Family - 6900 Chef Menteur Hwy. New Orleans before the storm. We think she maybe in a shelter somewhere in Baton Rouge. I'm also looking for other relatives, Janice, Lester, Randy & Trina Meadoux. If you have any Info. please contact me at (714) 974-0907 or 1 800 828-6699 ext. 1146
Sept. 4, 2005 Miami Herald: S. Florida opens arms to evacuees
Friday night, the Rouzan family learned that a cousin, Lorraine Duvernay, 78, had died in the Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family in New Orleans.Sept. 3rd, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: First Person: Sister Sylvia, where are you?
She is in the nursing home's chapel in a body bag.
''And there is nothing you can do,'' Wanda Rouzan said, crying.
A gentle, caring soul in New Orleans went missing in action
One of those people is Sister Sylvia Thibodeaux, head of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, an order of African-American Catholic sisters. Sister Sylvia welcomed me and took me on a tour of the convent with its peeling paint, dormitory bathrooms and a chapel that was woefully inadequate for sisters who were now using walkers and wheelchairs.
She had immense challenges daily to maintain a deteriorating complex of buildings that included the huge convent where more than 50 sisters live, a sprawling 600-student girls' academy nearby, the 130-bed Lafon Nursing Home for elderly lay and religious women in need of skilled care; and, next door to the nursing home, the multistoried Delille Independent Living for the Elderly Poor apartment complex. The Holy Family sisters are frail and aging but as many members as could walk continued to work for little to no pay at educating elementary and high school students and caring for the handicapped, frail and elderly.
Sept. 2nd San Antonio News-Express: Ken Rodriguez: Help came for woman's grandmother, but was it too late?
On the east side of New Orleans, amid rising waters and sinking hope, more than 100 residents of Lafon Nursing Home were trapped on the second floor.
Without food and drinking water, they grew fatigued and weak. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, some perished, waiting to be rescued.
About 500 miles away in San Antonio, assistant city manager Jelynne Burley held her breath.
The grandmother who raised her, 100-year-old Rosalie Daste, is a Lafon Nursing Home resident.
Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, Burley learned that rescuers had arrived and evacuated 100 residents and caretakers. Was her grandmother among the living?
"I don't know," she said. "All I know is that some people didn't make it."....
Thursday afternoon, [Burley's] staff assistant retrieved the following message from nola.com:
"My aunt is trapped at the Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family on 6900 Chef Menteur Highway. ... The people that own the nursing home have left and gone to Covington, La. They made no arrangements to get them out. The water is still rising and they have no idea if anyone is coming for them. Please help us to save my aunt and the residents."
Last updated Sept. 12th: AAHSA has collected relocation information for AAHSA members and other long-term care facilities that had to evacuate because of Hurricane Katrina.
Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family, New Orleans, La.
Relocated to Château Terrebonne Health Care Center,
Houma, La.
(985) 872-4553
Last updated Sept. 12th: From the Sisters of the Holy Family Website:
While we are not affiliated with the LaFon Nursing Home in New Orleans, LA, nor the Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans, we have obtained information from The Sisters of the Holy Family, SSF. They are now in Shreveport, LA. You may contact Sister Silvia Thibodeaux at 318-868-3880.
For information about the residents of LaFon Nursing Home, please contact Sister Augustine Mc Daniels, SSF at 409-842-2940.
August 31st, nowpublic.com:
My name is James Williams from Chicago and I'm trying to find any information on the Lafon nursing home of the Holy Family
Hello my name is James Williams, I am from Chicago illinois and I am looking for any information on the Lafon Nursing Home of the Holy Family. I have a grandmother and an Aunt that was there with my grandmother that we have had no contact at all my grandmother has a prostetic leg if that will help. (Grandmother Marie Jones & Aunt Jean-Marie Belonga
There are other families as well looking for the same nursing home because of loved ones, two Nuns to be exact. please your immediate response would be greatly appreciated.
Sept. 1st, thinknola.com:
Lafon Nursing Facility
Lafon Latest - by geselm - 9/1/05 10:19 ET (http://www.nola.com/forums/townhall/index.ssf?searchart?artid=15199)
As of 9/1 10am EST according to LA Nursing Home Assoc, Lafon Nursing Facility of the Holy Family HAD NOT been evacuated. She said they were working on that now and to call back in 12 - 24 hours.
For Clarification there is no Mercy Hills retreat that I can find in Covington or any other place. Mary Hill Renewal Center at the 318 number DOES NOT have Lafon residents. They are not at Xavier Prep.
I am looking for my grandmother Rebecca Landix. I have at least 10 names that I will ask about in addition to my grandmother. Please contact me atgeselm@hotmail.com if you have any information.
From karmus.com:
Larry
I am looking for my mother Annie M. Harrison, Age 90, Airlifted from Lafon Sisters of the Holy Family Nursing Home (6900 Chef menteur Hwy,New Orleans LA). Contact me at ljharrison@anteon.com; (321) 436-7206.
From bulletinblog: Hurricane Katrina
Obando Perez, Emelina
Lives at: Lafon Nursing Home, Sisters of the Holy Family, 6900 Chef Menteur Highway,
New Orleans, LA 70126.
Last told she was airlifted by Natl Guard to NO Intl Airport but there is no list & they say they are evacuating ppl out on buses, helicopters and planes. Don't know where she is. She only speaks SPANISH!
Please call Ivonne at 904-652-7241
August 31st, Catholic News Service:
Louisianans face long recovery from Katrina, New Orleans flooding
She said the retreat center in the diocese has taken in 36 Holy Family Sisters who had to evacuate their motherhouse in New Orleans, and the local Catholic high school had become a temporary shelter for the evacuated residents of a nursing home near Houma, about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.
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MY MOTHER, MARGUERITE GUSMAN, A RESIDENT OF LAFON NURSING HOME WAS AIRLIFTED TO NASHVILLE, TENN. AND PLACED TEMPORARILLY IN ST.THOMAS CATHOLIC HOSPITAL, AN EXCELLENT FACILITY.
EVERYONE THERE SAID THAT IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT MY MOTHER HAD HAD EXCELLENT CARE IN THE NURSING HOME FROM WHICH SHE HAD COME. THEY WERE THROUGHLY IMPRESSED WITH THE BRACELET THAT ALL LAFON RESIDENTS WEAR IDENTIFYING THEM COMPLETELY INCLUDING THEIE MEDICAL HISTORIES.
WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THROUGHLY SATISFIED WITH LAFON.
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