Maurice Lyndon Dotson, 51, of Austin, Texas, formerly of Clarendon, died Friday morning April 17 at Saint David's Hospital-South Austin Medical Center in Austin.
His mother, Florence Dodson, his maternal grandmother, five sisters, three brothers, three nephews, a niece and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends survive him.
Graveside services will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m. at Liberty Cemetery, Highway 33 South in Cassco
information from Branscumb Funeral Home of Brinkley
An obituary was published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on April 23, 2020
Son of the late Clyde Tyler Sr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
Maurice Dotson updated his Facebook profile picture March 19 with what would become a haunting message: “I can’t stay home...I’m a health care worker.”
For 25 years, he worked at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Austin as a certified nursing assistant. He never let residents’ birthdays or other milestones go uncelebrated and especially doted on those whose families lived away or seldom visited.
“He was the type – he didn’t just leave at the end of his shift,” said Mona Surber, who became friends with Dotson on the job eight years ago. “He went and told every single resident on that hall, ‘I’m leaving, goodnight. Do you need anything before I leave?’ And that was every single night. Every single night.”
As COVID-19 began spreading across Austin last month, and as patients in the facility where he worked became victims, Dotson weighed risks to his health and not going to work. He and Surber talked or texted almost daily, and he insisted his priority was his patients.
“He would tell me, ‘I know it is out there, but I have to work and I’m not going to leave my residents,’” she said.
Nurse Bryan Zekan, one of Dotson’s friends and a former West Oaks co-worker, said, “I think for him, that would have been like abandoning his family.”
As he pressed forward, Dotson told a couple of friends that he had begun to not feel well. On the morning of April 9, Dotson, described by loved ones as a healthy 51-year-old with no underlying conditions, again posted on Facebook. He reported that he felt so sick that he had called an ambulance to take him to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.
Then early Friday, he became what is believed to be the first health care worker in Austin to die from the virus.
Extracted from The Statesman, Austin Texas, April 21, 2020
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
h the novel coronavirus sweeping through the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson posted a stark message on his Facebook. "Off to work again. Healthcare never closes . . . pray 4 me," he wrote.
That same day, a state inspector showed up at the sprawling facility to check on a complaint that managers failed to order the staff to wear masks and gloves, despite strict federal guidelines.
During the visit on March 26, the inspector found the facility had violated critical infection control practices, including failing to isolate a sick patient, not sanitizing their hands, and not properly disposing of protective gear. It was the second time in two years the state had found such problems.
Two weeks later, Dotson, a certified nursing assistant who had worked at the facility for 25 years and was now caring for patients with COVID-19, feared he was coming down with something. "I’m hurting so bad,” he said in a Facebook post. “I don't know what's going on with me.”
Ten days later, on the morning of April 17, at the age of 51, he died from the virus.
Inspection records reveal that, like many nursing homes, West Oaks has a history of safety and infection control problems and now must confront an unprecedented crisis.
The state said one Austin facility has at least 35 patients who have tested positive, and employees at West Oaks say it's their facility. West Oaks will not say how many have died among its residents and workers....t's not clear what precautions were taken by the West Oaks staff after the state inspection in March, but two days after Dotson died, inspectors turned up at the facility and found multiple violations for immediate jeopardy, a charge that can cost a home its license unless corrected.
That kind of citation can include anything from a failure to keep critical medical records to hazards that cause injuries and deaths.
State officials did not provide records of the findings, and the nursing home said it could not comment until it sees a final report.
Brooke Ladner, an official for Regency Integrated Health Services, which runs the center, said the nursing home implemented federal and state guidelines after the Center for Disease Control released its protocols on March 13 and the company has "worked diligently to continually improve the standard of care at the facility." Any alleged violation is immediately investigated, she said....
“The loss of Maurice Dotson was deeply felt by his friends and co-workers at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center,” she said, “and we grieve with his family."
Dotson's sister, Felicia, said her brother faced enormous hazards when he went to work each day.
“You see people dying around the world, the main place they're dying is in nursing homes,” she said. “Why would they not use more precautions?"
Her brother would never have considered quitting his job or not showing up for work, she said. With relatives barred from visiting, "he would say, ‘I am their family. They don't have their family.’"
The facility’s documented problems date back well before the pandemic. In 2018, inspectors found that caretakers were not showering patients for a week at a time and discovered some residents with gaping, infected wounds. In other cases, caretakers were not properly cleaning catheter tubing or washing their hands, risking the spread of infection, records show....
Extracted from a post on BuzzFeed News on April 24, 2020,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
For residents of the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson was a daily presence. As a nursing assistant, he hoisted them out of bed, helped them dress, fetched water, changed diapers and watched for signs of distress.
He also made sure to help celebrate their birthdays.
As thousands of nursing-home residents across the country die of Covid-19, Mr. Dotson knew the risks he took by reporting for work.
Yet frail people, deprived of family visits, depended on him. “He felt obligated to make sure they were taken care of,” said Mr. Dotson’s sister Felicia Dodson, who uses a different spelling of the family name. “It was like his family, pretty much.”
About three weeks ago, he stopped working when he fell ill. A few days later, he called an ambulance. He tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was put on a ventilator at an Austin hospital, where he died April 17, Ms. Dodson said. He was 51 years old.
Born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1969, Mr. Dotson didn’t finish high school but later passed a GED exam and trained as a certified nursing assistant. He had worked at West Oaks for 25 years.
Being a nursing assistant has always been a tough, low-paid job. Now, says Kezia Scales, director of policy research at PHI, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for better care for older and disabled people, nursing assistants are stretched thinner than usual as illness depletes their ranks. They may lack adequate protective gear, risk being blamed for spreading the virus and are mourning residents they love.
Published in The Wall Street Journal on April 25-26 2020
AUSTIN (KXAN)
“Smiling, always smiling.”
That’s how Dina Mata will remember her friend and former co-worker Maurice Dotson.
Mata sat at the front desk of the nursing home where Dotson worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She said he brought joy and light every day when he walked through the doors.
“Everybody felt that,” she said. “I don’t think there was a day that Maurice worked where he wasn’t laughing.”
Mata described the tough job of a CNA, patiently helping elderly residents with daily tasks.
“He never complained,” Mata said. “Maurice was just that kind of man. He thought beyond himself.”
Mata said during her time at the front desk, she heard countless residents and family members express their love of Dotson. She saw CNAs come and go, but Dotson’s 25-year career speaks for itself.
She described him as “steadfast,” even as headlines about COVID-19 began to surface.
“Yes, it was a risk, and I’m sure he was scared, at times. But it was never going to stop him from doing his job,” Mata said.
That risk ultimately claimed Dotson’s life.
In Austin, there have been at least 16 deaths related COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities – 15 residents of those were residents.
On Monday, West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our team member and send our thoughts and prayers to friends and family. Our dedicated staff put our patients first before themselves everyday.”
Mata said that describes Dotson perfectly.
“He loved them with everything that he had,” she said. “He could have chosen to call in sick or do what everybody else might be doing. But no, he didn’t. He had a job to do.”
Staffing shortages have long been a problem in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, long before the threat of the coronavirus.
Lori Porter, co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, said the nursing home staffing crisis has been “brewing for years.”
“Why would they do it for $13 dollars an hour? In some states it’s still not even at $10 an hour for a starting wage,” Porter said. “None of us are here for the money.”
Now, with the risks greater than ever, Porter said she’s concerned nursing aides lack the resources they need to protect themselves.
“On behalf of more than a million CNAs nationwide, we thank Maurice and his family for his sacrifice,” she said. “We know there will be more.”
Porter fought back tears as she pleaded for more personal protective equipment for CNAs and other nursing home staff.
She says her hope is that America knows who the CNAs on the frontlines are and how valuable they are to our nation’s elders.
Austin Public Health has requested four strike teams from the state, to help assist in the hardest hit homes.
“Not only are patients or residents getting sick, but also staff are getting sick and that means staffing shortages are mixed with increasing populations in these facilities of patients that have more needs,” Austin Public Health Interim Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He said they hope the teams will be able to “fill in the gaps,” as they work to stop the spread of the virus.
So far, APH has reported 96 residents and 67 staff diagnosed with the coronavirus in area long-term care facilities.
Mata said she wants to make sure Dotson’s legacy is more than just a number. She made a memorial for him that she hopes West Oaks will hang inside the facility.
“He didn’t run away. He stayed. He gave his all, all to where he gave his life. I just don’t want us to forget about Maurice.”
His mother, Florence Dodson, his maternal grandmother, five sisters, three brothers, three nephews, a niece and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends survive him.
Graveside services will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m. at Liberty Cemetery, Highway 33 South in Cassco
information from Branscumb Funeral Home of Brinkley
An obituary was published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on April 23, 2020
Son of the late Clyde Tyler Sr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
Maurice Dotson updated his Facebook profile picture March 19 with what would become a haunting message: “I can’t stay home...I’m a health care worker.”
For 25 years, he worked at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Austin as a certified nursing assistant. He never let residents’ birthdays or other milestones go uncelebrated and especially doted on those whose families lived away or seldom visited.
“He was the type – he didn’t just leave at the end of his shift,” said Mona Surber, who became friends with Dotson on the job eight years ago. “He went and told every single resident on that hall, ‘I’m leaving, goodnight. Do you need anything before I leave?’ And that was every single night. Every single night.”
As COVID-19 began spreading across Austin last month, and as patients in the facility where he worked became victims, Dotson weighed risks to his health and not going to work. He and Surber talked or texted almost daily, and he insisted his priority was his patients.
“He would tell me, ‘I know it is out there, but I have to work and I’m not going to leave my residents,’” she said.
Nurse Bryan Zekan, one of Dotson’s friends and a former West Oaks co-worker, said, “I think for him, that would have been like abandoning his family.”
As he pressed forward, Dotson told a couple of friends that he had begun to not feel well. On the morning of April 9, Dotson, described by loved ones as a healthy 51-year-old with no underlying conditions, again posted on Facebook. He reported that he felt so sick that he had called an ambulance to take him to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.
Then early Friday, he became what is believed to be the first health care worker in Austin to die from the virus.
Extracted from The Statesman, Austin Texas, April 21, 2020
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
h the novel coronavirus sweeping through the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson posted a stark message on his Facebook. "Off to work again. Healthcare never closes . . . pray 4 me," he wrote.
That same day, a state inspector showed up at the sprawling facility to check on a complaint that managers failed to order the staff to wear masks and gloves, despite strict federal guidelines.
During the visit on March 26, the inspector found the facility had violated critical infection control practices, including failing to isolate a sick patient, not sanitizing their hands, and not properly disposing of protective gear. It was the second time in two years the state had found such problems.
Two weeks later, Dotson, a certified nursing assistant who had worked at the facility for 25 years and was now caring for patients with COVID-19, feared he was coming down with something. "I’m hurting so bad,” he said in a Facebook post. “I don't know what's going on with me.”
Ten days later, on the morning of April 17, at the age of 51, he died from the virus.
Inspection records reveal that, like many nursing homes, West Oaks has a history of safety and infection control problems and now must confront an unprecedented crisis.
The state said one Austin facility has at least 35 patients who have tested positive, and employees at West Oaks say it's their facility. West Oaks will not say how many have died among its residents and workers....t's not clear what precautions were taken by the West Oaks staff after the state inspection in March, but two days after Dotson died, inspectors turned up at the facility and found multiple violations for immediate jeopardy, a charge that can cost a home its license unless corrected.
That kind of citation can include anything from a failure to keep critical medical records to hazards that cause injuries and deaths.
State officials did not provide records of the findings, and the nursing home said it could not comment until it sees a final report.
Brooke Ladner, an official for Regency Integrated Health Services, which runs the center, said the nursing home implemented federal and state guidelines after the Center for Disease Control released its protocols on March 13 and the company has "worked diligently to continually improve the standard of care at the facility." Any alleged violation is immediately investigated, she said....
“The loss of Maurice Dotson was deeply felt by his friends and co-workers at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center,” she said, “and we grieve with his family."
Dotson's sister, Felicia, said her brother faced enormous hazards when he went to work each day.
“You see people dying around the world, the main place they're dying is in nursing homes,” she said. “Why would they not use more precautions?"
Her brother would never have considered quitting his job or not showing up for work, she said. With relatives barred from visiting, "he would say, ‘I am their family. They don't have their family.’"
The facility’s documented problems date back well before the pandemic. In 2018, inspectors found that caretakers were not showering patients for a week at a time and discovered some residents with gaping, infected wounds. In other cases, caretakers were not properly cleaning catheter tubing or washing their hands, risking the spread of infection, records show....
Extracted from a post on BuzzFeed News on April 24, 2020,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
For residents of the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson was a daily presence. As a nursing assistant, he hoisted them out of bed, helped them dress, fetched water, changed diapers and watched for signs of distress.
He also made sure to help celebrate their birthdays.
As thousands of nursing-home residents across the country die of Covid-19, Mr. Dotson knew the risks he took by reporting for work.
Yet frail people, deprived of family visits, depended on him. “He felt obligated to make sure they were taken care of,” said Mr. Dotson’s sister Felicia Dodson, who uses a different spelling of the family name. “It was like his family, pretty much.”
About three weeks ago, he stopped working when he fell ill. A few days later, he called an ambulance. He tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was put on a ventilator at an Austin hospital, where he died April 17, Ms. Dodson said. He was 51 years old.
Born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1969, Mr. Dotson didn’t finish high school but later passed a GED exam and trained as a certified nursing assistant. He had worked at West Oaks for 25 years.
Being a nursing assistant has always been a tough, low-paid job. Now, says Kezia Scales, director of policy research at PHI, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for better care for older and disabled people, nursing assistants are stretched thinner than usual as illness depletes their ranks. They may lack adequate protective gear, risk being blamed for spreading the virus and are mourning residents they love.
Published in The Wall Street Journal on April 25-26 2020
AUSTIN (KXAN)
“Smiling, always smiling.”
That’s how Dina Mata will remember her friend and former co-worker Maurice Dotson.
Mata sat at the front desk of the nursing home where Dotson worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She said he brought joy and light every day when he walked through the doors.
“Everybody felt that,” she said. “I don’t think there was a day that Maurice worked where he wasn’t laughing.”
Mata described the tough job of a CNA, patiently helping elderly residents with daily tasks.
“He never complained,” Mata said. “Maurice was just that kind of man. He thought beyond himself.”
Mata said during her time at the front desk, she heard countless residents and family members express their love of Dotson. She saw CNAs come and go, but Dotson’s 25-year career speaks for itself.
She described him as “steadfast,” even as headlines about COVID-19 began to surface.
“Yes, it was a risk, and I’m sure he was scared, at times. But it was never going to stop him from doing his job,” Mata said.
That risk ultimately claimed Dotson’s life.
In Austin, there have been at least 16 deaths related COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities – 15 residents of those were residents.
On Monday, West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our team member and send our thoughts and prayers to friends and family. Our dedicated staff put our patients first before themselves everyday.”
Mata said that describes Dotson perfectly.
“He loved them with everything that he had,” she said. “He could have chosen to call in sick or do what everybody else might be doing. But no, he didn’t. He had a job to do.”
Staffing shortages have long been a problem in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, long before the threat of the coronavirus.
Lori Porter, co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, said the nursing home staffing crisis has been “brewing for years.”
“Why would they do it for $13 dollars an hour? In some states it’s still not even at $10 an hour for a starting wage,” Porter said. “None of us are here for the money.”
Now, with the risks greater than ever, Porter said she’s concerned nursing aides lack the resources they need to protect themselves.
“On behalf of more than a million CNAs nationwide, we thank Maurice and his family for his sacrifice,” she said. “We know there will be more.”
Porter fought back tears as she pleaded for more personal protective equipment for CNAs and other nursing home staff.
She says her hope is that America knows who the CNAs on the frontlines are and how valuable they are to our nation’s elders.
Austin Public Health has requested four strike teams from the state, to help assist in the hardest hit homes.
“Not only are patients or residents getting sick, but also staff are getting sick and that means staffing shortages are mixed with increasing populations in these facilities of patients that have more needs,” Austin Public Health Interim Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He said they hope the teams will be able to “fill in the gaps,” as they work to stop the spread of the virus.
So far, APH has reported 96 residents and 67 staff diagnosed with the coronavirus in area long-term care facilities.
Mata said she wants to make sure Dotson’s legacy is more than just a number. She made a memorial for him that she hopes West Oaks will hang inside the facility.
“He didn’t run away. He stayed. He gave his all, all to where he gave his life. I just don’t want us to forget about Maurice.”
Maurice Lyndon Dotson, 51, of Austin, Texas, formerly of Clarendon, died Friday morning April 17 at Saint David's Hospital-South Austin Medical Center in Austin.
His mother, Florence Dodson, his maternal grandmother, five sisters, three brothers, three nephews, a niece and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends survive him.
Graveside services will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m. at Liberty Cemetery, Highway 33 South in Cassco
information from Branscumb Funeral Home of Brinkley
An obituary was published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on April 23, 2020
Son of the late Clyde Tyler Sr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
Maurice Dotson updated his Facebook profile picture March 19 with what would become a haunting message: “I can’t stay home...I’m a health care worker.”
For 25 years, he worked at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Austin as a certified nursing assistant. He never let residents’ birthdays or other milestones go uncelebrated and especially doted on those whose families lived away or seldom visited.
“He was the type – he didn’t just leave at the end of his shift,” said Mona Surber, who became friends with Dotson on the job eight years ago. “He went and told every single resident on that hall, ‘I’m leaving, goodnight. Do you need anything before I leave?’ And that was every single night. Every single night.”
As COVID-19 began spreading across Austin last month, and as patients in the facility where he worked became victims, Dotson weighed risks to his health and not going to work. He and Surber talked or texted almost daily, and he insisted his priority was his patients.
“He would tell me, ‘I know it is out there, but I have to work and I’m not going to leave my residents,’” she said.
Nurse Bryan Zekan, one of Dotson’s friends and a former West Oaks co-worker, said, “I think for him, that would have been like abandoning his family.”
As he pressed forward, Dotson told a couple of friends that he had begun to not feel well. On the morning of April 9, Dotson, described by loved ones as a healthy 51-year-old with no underlying conditions, again posted on Facebook. He reported that he felt so sick that he had called an ambulance to take him to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.
Then early Friday, he became what is believed to be the first health care worker in Austin to die from the virus.
Extracted from The Statesman, Austin Texas, April 21, 2020
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
h the novel coronavirus sweeping through the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson posted a stark message on his Facebook. "Off to work again. Healthcare never closes . . . pray 4 me," he wrote.
That same day, a state inspector showed up at the sprawling facility to check on a complaint that managers failed to order the staff to wear masks and gloves, despite strict federal guidelines.
During the visit on March 26, the inspector found the facility had violated critical infection control practices, including failing to isolate a sick patient, not sanitizing their hands, and not properly disposing of protective gear. It was the second time in two years the state had found such problems.
Two weeks later, Dotson, a certified nursing assistant who had worked at the facility for 25 years and was now caring for patients with COVID-19, feared he was coming down with something. "I’m hurting so bad,” he said in a Facebook post. “I don't know what's going on with me.”
Ten days later, on the morning of April 17, at the age of 51, he died from the virus.
Inspection records reveal that, like many nursing homes, West Oaks has a history of safety and infection control problems and now must confront an unprecedented crisis.
The state said one Austin facility has at least 35 patients who have tested positive, and employees at West Oaks say it's their facility. West Oaks will not say how many have died among its residents and workers....t's not clear what precautions were taken by the West Oaks staff after the state inspection in March, but two days after Dotson died, inspectors turned up at the facility and found multiple violations for immediate jeopardy, a charge that can cost a home its license unless corrected.
That kind of citation can include anything from a failure to keep critical medical records to hazards that cause injuries and deaths.
State officials did not provide records of the findings, and the nursing home said it could not comment until it sees a final report.
Brooke Ladner, an official for Regency Integrated Health Services, which runs the center, said the nursing home implemented federal and state guidelines after the Center for Disease Control released its protocols on March 13 and the company has "worked diligently to continually improve the standard of care at the facility." Any alleged violation is immediately investigated, she said....
“The loss of Maurice Dotson was deeply felt by his friends and co-workers at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center,” she said, “and we grieve with his family."
Dotson's sister, Felicia, said her brother faced enormous hazards when he went to work each day.
“You see people dying around the world, the main place they're dying is in nursing homes,” she said. “Why would they not use more precautions?"
Her brother would never have considered quitting his job or not showing up for work, she said. With relatives barred from visiting, "he would say, ‘I am their family. They don't have their family.’"
The facility’s documented problems date back well before the pandemic. In 2018, inspectors found that caretakers were not showering patients for a week at a time and discovered some residents with gaping, infected wounds. In other cases, caretakers were not properly cleaning catheter tubing or washing their hands, risking the spread of infection, records show....
Extracted from a post on BuzzFeed News on April 24, 2020,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
For residents of the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson was a daily presence. As a nursing assistant, he hoisted them out of bed, helped them dress, fetched water, changed diapers and watched for signs of distress.
He also made sure to help celebrate their birthdays.
As thousands of nursing-home residents across the country die of Covid-19, Mr. Dotson knew the risks he took by reporting for work.
Yet frail people, deprived of family visits, depended on him. “He felt obligated to make sure they were taken care of,” said Mr. Dotson’s sister Felicia Dodson, who uses a different spelling of the family name. “It was like his family, pretty much.”
About three weeks ago, he stopped working when he fell ill. A few days later, he called an ambulance. He tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was put on a ventilator at an Austin hospital, where he died April 17, Ms. Dodson said. He was 51 years old.
Born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1969, Mr. Dotson didn’t finish high school but later passed a GED exam and trained as a certified nursing assistant. He had worked at West Oaks for 25 years.
Being a nursing assistant has always been a tough, low-paid job. Now, says Kezia Scales, director of policy research at PHI, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for better care for older and disabled people, nursing assistants are stretched thinner than usual as illness depletes their ranks. They may lack adequate protective gear, risk being blamed for spreading the virus and are mourning residents they love.
Published in The Wall Street Journal on April 25-26 2020
AUSTIN (KXAN)
“Smiling, always smiling.”
That’s how Dina Mata will remember her friend and former co-worker Maurice Dotson.
Mata sat at the front desk of the nursing home where Dotson worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She said he brought joy and light every day when he walked through the doors.
“Everybody felt that,” she said. “I don’t think there was a day that Maurice worked where he wasn’t laughing.”
Mata described the tough job of a CNA, patiently helping elderly residents with daily tasks.
“He never complained,” Mata said. “Maurice was just that kind of man. He thought beyond himself.”
Mata said during her time at the front desk, she heard countless residents and family members express their love of Dotson. She saw CNAs come and go, but Dotson’s 25-year career speaks for itself.
She described him as “steadfast,” even as headlines about COVID-19 began to surface.
“Yes, it was a risk, and I’m sure he was scared, at times. But it was never going to stop him from doing his job,” Mata said.
That risk ultimately claimed Dotson’s life.
In Austin, there have been at least 16 deaths related COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities – 15 residents of those were residents.
On Monday, West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our team member and send our thoughts and prayers to friends and family. Our dedicated staff put our patients first before themselves everyday.”
Mata said that describes Dotson perfectly.
“He loved them with everything that he had,” she said. “He could have chosen to call in sick or do what everybody else might be doing. But no, he didn’t. He had a job to do.”
Staffing shortages have long been a problem in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, long before the threat of the coronavirus.
Lori Porter, co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, said the nursing home staffing crisis has been “brewing for years.”
“Why would they do it for $13 dollars an hour? In some states it’s still not even at $10 an hour for a starting wage,” Porter said. “None of us are here for the money.”
Now, with the risks greater than ever, Porter said she’s concerned nursing aides lack the resources they need to protect themselves.
“On behalf of more than a million CNAs nationwide, we thank Maurice and his family for his sacrifice,” she said. “We know there will be more.”
Porter fought back tears as she pleaded for more personal protective equipment for CNAs and other nursing home staff.
She says her hope is that America knows who the CNAs on the frontlines are and how valuable they are to our nation’s elders.
Austin Public Health has requested four strike teams from the state, to help assist in the hardest hit homes.
“Not only are patients or residents getting sick, but also staff are getting sick and that means staffing shortages are mixed with increasing populations in these facilities of patients that have more needs,” Austin Public Health Interim Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He said they hope the teams will be able to “fill in the gaps,” as they work to stop the spread of the virus.
So far, APH has reported 96 residents and 67 staff diagnosed with the coronavirus in area long-term care facilities.
Mata said she wants to make sure Dotson’s legacy is more than just a number. She made a memorial for him that she hopes West Oaks will hang inside the facility.
“He didn’t run away. He stayed. He gave his all, all to where he gave his life. I just don’t want us to forget about Maurice.”
His mother, Florence Dodson, his maternal grandmother, five sisters, three brothers, three nephews, a niece and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends survive him.
Graveside services will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m. at Liberty Cemetery, Highway 33 South in Cassco
information from Branscumb Funeral Home of Brinkley
An obituary was published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on April 23, 2020
Son of the late Clyde Tyler Sr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
Maurice Dotson updated his Facebook profile picture March 19 with what would become a haunting message: “I can’t stay home...I’m a health care worker.”
For 25 years, he worked at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Austin as a certified nursing assistant. He never let residents’ birthdays or other milestones go uncelebrated and especially doted on those whose families lived away or seldom visited.
“He was the type – he didn’t just leave at the end of his shift,” said Mona Surber, who became friends with Dotson on the job eight years ago. “He went and told every single resident on that hall, ‘I’m leaving, goodnight. Do you need anything before I leave?’ And that was every single night. Every single night.”
As COVID-19 began spreading across Austin last month, and as patients in the facility where he worked became victims, Dotson weighed risks to his health and not going to work. He and Surber talked or texted almost daily, and he insisted his priority was his patients.
“He would tell me, ‘I know it is out there, but I have to work and I’m not going to leave my residents,’” she said.
Nurse Bryan Zekan, one of Dotson’s friends and a former West Oaks co-worker, said, “I think for him, that would have been like abandoning his family.”
As he pressed forward, Dotson told a couple of friends that he had begun to not feel well. On the morning of April 9, Dotson, described by loved ones as a healthy 51-year-old with no underlying conditions, again posted on Facebook. He reported that he felt so sick that he had called an ambulance to take him to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.
Then early Friday, he became what is believed to be the first health care worker in Austin to die from the virus.
Extracted from The Statesman, Austin Texas, April 21, 2020
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
h the novel coronavirus sweeping through the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson posted a stark message on his Facebook. "Off to work again. Healthcare never closes . . . pray 4 me," he wrote.
That same day, a state inspector showed up at the sprawling facility to check on a complaint that managers failed to order the staff to wear masks and gloves, despite strict federal guidelines.
During the visit on March 26, the inspector found the facility had violated critical infection control practices, including failing to isolate a sick patient, not sanitizing their hands, and not properly disposing of protective gear. It was the second time in two years the state had found such problems.
Two weeks later, Dotson, a certified nursing assistant who had worked at the facility for 25 years and was now caring for patients with COVID-19, feared he was coming down with something. "I’m hurting so bad,” he said in a Facebook post. “I don't know what's going on with me.”
Ten days later, on the morning of April 17, at the age of 51, he died from the virus.
Inspection records reveal that, like many nursing homes, West Oaks has a history of safety and infection control problems and now must confront an unprecedented crisis.
The state said one Austin facility has at least 35 patients who have tested positive, and employees at West Oaks say it's their facility. West Oaks will not say how many have died among its residents and workers....t's not clear what precautions were taken by the West Oaks staff after the state inspection in March, but two days after Dotson died, inspectors turned up at the facility and found multiple violations for immediate jeopardy, a charge that can cost a home its license unless corrected.
That kind of citation can include anything from a failure to keep critical medical records to hazards that cause injuries and deaths.
State officials did not provide records of the findings, and the nursing home said it could not comment until it sees a final report.
Brooke Ladner, an official for Regency Integrated Health Services, which runs the center, said the nursing home implemented federal and state guidelines after the Center for Disease Control released its protocols on March 13 and the company has "worked diligently to continually improve the standard of care at the facility." Any alleged violation is immediately investigated, she said....
“The loss of Maurice Dotson was deeply felt by his friends and co-workers at West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center,” she said, “and we grieve with his family."
Dotson's sister, Felicia, said her brother faced enormous hazards when he went to work each day.
“You see people dying around the world, the main place they're dying is in nursing homes,” she said. “Why would they not use more precautions?"
Her brother would never have considered quitting his job or not showing up for work, she said. With relatives barred from visiting, "he would say, ‘I am their family. They don't have their family.’"
The facility’s documented problems date back well before the pandemic. In 2018, inspectors found that caretakers were not showering patients for a week at a time and discovered some residents with gaping, infected wounds. In other cases, caretakers were not properly cleaning catheter tubing or washing their hands, risking the spread of infection, records show....
Extracted from a post on BuzzFeed News on April 24, 2020,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-
For residents of the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, Maurice Dotson was a daily presence. As a nursing assistant, he hoisted them out of bed, helped them dress, fetched water, changed diapers and watched for signs of distress.
He also made sure to help celebrate their birthdays.
As thousands of nursing-home residents across the country die of Covid-19, Mr. Dotson knew the risks he took by reporting for work.
Yet frail people, deprived of family visits, depended on him. “He felt obligated to make sure they were taken care of,” said Mr. Dotson’s sister Felicia Dodson, who uses a different spelling of the family name. “It was like his family, pretty much.”
About three weeks ago, he stopped working when he fell ill. A few days later, he called an ambulance. He tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was put on a ventilator at an Austin hospital, where he died April 17, Ms. Dodson said. He was 51 years old.
Born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1969, Mr. Dotson didn’t finish high school but later passed a GED exam and trained as a certified nursing assistant. He had worked at West Oaks for 25 years.
Being a nursing assistant has always been a tough, low-paid job. Now, says Kezia Scales, director of policy research at PHI, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for better care for older and disabled people, nursing assistants are stretched thinner than usual as illness depletes their ranks. They may lack adequate protective gear, risk being blamed for spreading the virus and are mourning residents they love.
Published in The Wall Street Journal on April 25-26 2020
AUSTIN (KXAN)
“Smiling, always smiling.”
That’s how Dina Mata will remember her friend and former co-worker Maurice Dotson.
Mata sat at the front desk of the nursing home where Dotson worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She said he brought joy and light every day when he walked through the doors.
“Everybody felt that,” she said. “I don’t think there was a day that Maurice worked where he wasn’t laughing.”
Mata described the tough job of a CNA, patiently helping elderly residents with daily tasks.
“He never complained,” Mata said. “Maurice was just that kind of man. He thought beyond himself.”
Mata said during her time at the front desk, she heard countless residents and family members express their love of Dotson. She saw CNAs come and go, but Dotson’s 25-year career speaks for itself.
She described him as “steadfast,” even as headlines about COVID-19 began to surface.
“Yes, it was a risk, and I’m sure he was scared, at times. But it was never going to stop him from doing his job,” Mata said.
That risk ultimately claimed Dotson’s life.
In Austin, there have been at least 16 deaths related COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities – 15 residents of those were residents.
On Monday, West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our team member and send our thoughts and prayers to friends and family. Our dedicated staff put our patients first before themselves everyday.”
Mata said that describes Dotson perfectly.
“He loved them with everything that he had,” she said. “He could have chosen to call in sick or do what everybody else might be doing. But no, he didn’t. He had a job to do.”
Staffing shortages have long been a problem in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, long before the threat of the coronavirus.
Lori Porter, co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, said the nursing home staffing crisis has been “brewing for years.”
“Why would they do it for $13 dollars an hour? In some states it’s still not even at $10 an hour for a starting wage,” Porter said. “None of us are here for the money.”
Now, with the risks greater than ever, Porter said she’s concerned nursing aides lack the resources they need to protect themselves.
“On behalf of more than a million CNAs nationwide, we thank Maurice and his family for his sacrifice,” she said. “We know there will be more.”
Porter fought back tears as she pleaded for more personal protective equipment for CNAs and other nursing home staff.
She says her hope is that America knows who the CNAs on the frontlines are and how valuable they are to our nation’s elders.
Austin Public Health has requested four strike teams from the state, to help assist in the hardest hit homes.
“Not only are patients or residents getting sick, but also staff are getting sick and that means staffing shortages are mixed with increasing populations in these facilities of patients that have more needs,” Austin Public Health Interim Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He said they hope the teams will be able to “fill in the gaps,” as they work to stop the spread of the virus.
So far, APH has reported 96 residents and 67 staff diagnosed with the coronavirus in area long-term care facilities.
Mata said she wants to make sure Dotson’s legacy is more than just a number. She made a memorial for him that she hopes West Oaks will hang inside the facility.
“He didn’t run away. He stayed. He gave his all, all to where he gave his life. I just don’t want us to forget about Maurice.”
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