When an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor was fatally assaulted inside her room at Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, the horror sent shockwaves through Brooklyn’s elder care community. Yet, according to those who have long fought against nursing home neglect, the tragedy was not unforeseeable — it was a warning long ignored.
On the night of Sept. 14, police responded to a 911 call reporting an assault inside the Coney Island facility. The NYPD said Nina Kravtsov was discovered with “head trauma” and was pronounced dead at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn. Police later identified the suspect as 95-year-old Galina Smirnova, who prosecutors say bludgeoned Kravtsov with a detached metal leg from a wheelchair.
Smirnova has since been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, though her competency to stand trial is now under judicial review.
‘They closed their eyes’
Attorney Randy Zelin, who represents the Kravtsov family, said Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center bears direct responsibility: “The responsibility that the nursing home completely ignored to keep [Kravtsov] safe, secure and free from being beaten to death by another resident of the facility.
He told Brooklyn Paper that understaffing and negligence were major contributors to the incident.
“To even call it a contribution would be like calling a superstorm ‘standing rain showers,’” Zelin asserted. “It is part and parcel of Seagate’s abject closing of its eyes to its legal and moral responsibility to care for its patients and residents.”
Source: https://www.brooklynpaper.com/seagate-nursing-home-citations/
