 Hi, my name is Natasha Rowland. I read an article about Queens Adult Care Center. I wanted to speak to somebody in reference to that article because I had to go in there to take my father out. My dad hadn't eaten in a week. He couldn't move. They were not giving him his medication. My dad is now at Purchase Center Hospital because the positive of COVID-19 is 82 years old. He's a diabetic. He has lung disease. The reason why I'm calling you is because I got this really distressing voicemail from you yesterday. And it sounded like you had just read my story. Yes. Someone sent the story to me and I was so angry when I read that story because it was like, oh my God, they lied to me. They bit knew that this virus was in there. They bit knew people tested positive. Why would they lie to me? Why would they lie to me? Why would you lie to me? When the coronavirus landed in New York, Natasha Rowland said she was immediately concerned for her father, Willie Rowland. He's a diabetic. My dad is not well. At nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the country, many desperate family members are struggling to learn the truth of what's happening inside. By late March, it became clear to Natasha that her father would be in the nation's hotspot. Elmhurst Hospital had made national news with its long line of sick patients. Tonight, a dramatic spike in New York State's death toll from 385 to more than 500. The pandemic's epicenter in the U.S. right now may be Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. A block away, the Queens Adult Care Center houses a mix of residents with mental illness and the elderly. ProPublica has been reporting on problems there since 2018. And after a recent article, we began hearing from several residents and concerned family members. The last week of March, Natasha called Michael Younger, the administrator of the center. She told him she would take her father home if he felt that there was a risk. He assured me that my dad would be fine. He even told me that that's probably the safest place for him is to stay there. And in that conversation, I had asked him, well, do you have any cases of the virus now? He told me, no. I said, you don't have any cases because I asked him again. He was like, no, there was one lady who tested positive because she was in the hospital and they got it from the hospital. So he led me to believe that the lady was not there. Then my dad started calling me saying he was not feeling well. Natasha thought maybe her father's issues were due to a recent change in his medication. She said she tried to see him, but the facility was under state instruction not to allow visitors. Then I got him. Annetta King Simpson is her father's girlfriend and also a resident. We met the Queens Dope can be hit it off. I love him and he loves me too. We have a relationship that is off the hook. How this all started was I started noticing that he wasn't feeling right. She said, we keep calling for them to check on your dad. They're not coming down here. So I checked his sugar myself. I said, you checked my father's sugar? Why aren't they coming in there checking for my father's sugar? It wasn't until Saturday, April 4th that she began to get a clear sense of what was going on. That night, she said she spoke to a worker there. And she said, look, Natasha, she was like, you need to get your father out of here. I said, what's going on? She said, the nurses A's are not going inside the room. I said, there's no cases of the virus in here because that's what Michael said, right? She was like, girl, like, I don't want to lose my job, but look. And I'm like, what? She said, come get your father. Come get your dad. Then the worker began to cry, saying she was scared to be at the center herself. But she needed to earn money for her family, who she quarantined herself away from. Ambulances were at the home constantly, the worker told her, and the administration wasn't saying which residents were sick. Meanwhile, residents continued to wander in and out, even panhandling among the patients waiting outside the hospital. Come and get my dad. Now, at this time, I'm talking about just bringing him home with me. I'm still thinking my dad is not sick with no virus. I know it's a lot. Natasha said she immediately began making arrangements for her father to come home. She called and asked the staff to prepare his medications for his departure. She would be there Sunday to pick him up. But on Sunday, a worker said they couldn't prepare everything on such short notice. They weren't adequately staffed. The Queen's Adult Care Center told us they'd been taking precautions to ensure the well-being of residents. They said Natasha's allegations are baseless, and that they spoke with her several times and offered to take her father to the hospital, but he refused. The worker Natasha spoke with now says she never urged her to get her dad, or that aides in the home weren't checking on residents. Only that conditions in the home were dire. A crisis communications consultant hired by the center argued that no one had died of the coronavirus there because they hadn't died on the grounds of the facility. Positive for the virus. In fact, a New York City councilman told us the city's health department said that a dozen residents had died by April 15th. Everything got out of control, and the next thing I knew, people were dying in there like you would not believe. They never quarantined another. Then I saw that no-listen, Willie was like breathing funny, and that happened at around 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning, and I had to call his daughter. At that point is when me and my brother got up. When you call the ambulance, they only wanted to take him to Elmhurst Hospital, and I was not going to let my dad go to Elmhurst Hospital, so I went to the facility, and mind you, throughout all this time, they're like, you can't come inside the facility. They say she couldn't come in. I tried. How did we get him out? She said, Annetta, I'm coming in because I don't see nobody at the desk right this second. I'm coming to get my father. And so how did that feel for you? Because you'd been on the phone with the administrator, and he's telling you everything's fine. It made me feel like I didn't do what I was supposed to do for my dad because I believed him. So I'm like, did I mess this up? You know, but I'm calling, and they're telling me my dad is okay. They're telling me that my father is safe. I was so crazy about this and that. When I saw my dad, my dad had, you know how do you have lost so much weight that your eyes look like it's popping out of your head? Yo, it tore me up. I didn't even think no more. I'm just, like, in there, grabbing my dad, like, getting his clothes on, not one A. No nurses A was in there. How were my dad? I visually saw a rolling going down in front of my face. He couldn't breathe, and I kept calling the desk telling them to send them upstairs with his medicine, and they were not coming. They weren't coming. I guess they were afraid, you know? And at two o'clock in the morning, they took him to New York Presbyterian. Doctors there told Natasha she saved his life. After hearing my story, they're going to work with me to make sure he doesn't go back there. That morning, Annetta calls me, and she's like, I can't breathe, baby. She was like, I'm going to call the ambulance. Annetta collapsed on the floor of the adult home. They call the ambulance. And right now, I am at Jacob Javits Center in the makeshift hospital by the Army and Navy. I don't know what happened to turn the place around, and it's not just COVID. This has been coming, and we just didn't take notice to it because Rowan and I, we had each other. We still have each other. But everything that they were supposed to be doing, I was doing because I care, okay? These residents need to go somewhere where people care about them. That place needs to go.