Hilo Veterans Home Under New Management
Kauʻi Chartrand is the new administrator for the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home. She spent the day Friday overseeing the administering of the first COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff.
“I can’t tell you – staff were excited. We were delighted. You know this has been long awaited,” says Chartrand.
The Hilo nursing home became a hotspot for the coronavirus last August. A COVID-19 outbreak infected 35 staff and 71 residents, including 27 who lost their lives. It also led to the removal of Avalon Health Care, the Utah-based company that ran the home since it opened in 2007.
Melvin Tomita, 87, believed in doing the right thing and spent a life doing just that HNN Staff
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Melvin Tomita used to wear a hat that read “pono.”
It was a mantra that he brought to every aspect of his life, as a member of the military, a firefighter, and as a husband and a dad. “Pono, do the right thing,” said his youngest daughter, Roxsanne Ruff-Tomita.
“That’s my dad. That’s him.”
Tomita died in September after contracting COVID-19 at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo. The 87-year-old Bronze Star recipient was one of more than two dozen at the facility who died of the virus.