Jose Novo had bed sores so deep that bone was exposed.

Lioubov “Luba” Ijnatieva felt “something crawling” inside a skin wound on her leg. It was infested with fly maggots.

Their stories are detailed in two separate statements of claim for a pair of proposed class actions that allege negligence at two Ontario nursing home giants with facilities in the GTA. The plaintiffs have since died but were both elderly patients at facilities run by Extendicare and Leisureworld (now Sienna Senior Living).

These allegations have not been proven in court. None of the proposed class actions have been certified by a judge.

Both statements of claim say the two defendants were negligent, breached fiduciary duties, breached terms of contract and failed to provide proper care. The long-term care services provided by them were substandard, the statements of claim say.

In an emailed statement, an Extendicare spokesperson said that “we care deeply about the residents, clients and families that we serve, and our staff work hard to provide them with comfort, care, and compassion.”

Spokesperson Rebecca Rawn said that Extendicare does not believe the lawsuit has merit and intends to demonstrate through the court process.

“Extendicare has very comprehensive programs which ensure that residents of its homes are appropriately cared for and conducts regular internal audits, external audits, and program evaluations to continuously improve, and our performance is shared publicly,” Rawn said. “We cannot speak to the specifics of any of our residents’ care or treatment.

“We reiterate our deep commitment to providing high-quality care to our residents and to doing better in any cases where we are thought to have fallen short of that goal. We work with our residents and families to address issues and concerns and it is unfortunate when they cannot be resolved.”

A spokesperson from Sienna said the company had just received the claim and “are currently reviewing it.”

“The health and wellbeing of all residents is our primary focus, and we take pride in the quality of care our team members provide,” Brian Richardson, Sienna’s chief marketing officer, said in an emailed statement to the Star. “Our mission is to help residents live fully, every day.”

The plaintiffs are being represented by Oakley and Oakley, one of three law firms that recently formed the Nursing Homes Action Coalition, set up to handle the two recent legal actions and a third filed in summer 2016.

According to one of the statements of claim filed May 1, 2018, Leisureworld Senior Care was “systemically negligent” in caring for Novo, 65, who was a resident at the company’s Tullamore Nursing Home in Brampton. Novo died on May 27, 2016.

Novo’s son Jimmy Novo is named as the “representative plaintiff” in the lawsuit, in the statement of claim. The action is seeking general damages of $50 million and “aggravated and punitive damages” of $100 million.

According to the statement of claim, Novo’s “family noticed that (he) would choke on his food as a result of staff at the nursing home trying to make him eat faster.”

In October 2015, Novo was taken to the hospital for “infected decubitis ulcers (bed sores),” the statement of claim says. A month later, his bed sores continued to worsen, with some were recorded as stage four, “with bone being visible,” according to the statement of claim.

In the second statement of claim filed in November 2017, Lioubov “Luba” Ijnatieva, 91, a former resident of Extendicare’s West End Villa nursing home in Ottawa, says she suffered “harm and damages due to the negligence, breach of fiduciary duties and breaches of contract.” Ijnatieva has since died and is represented by her daughter Larisa Gerol.

The plaintiffs are seeking general damages of $50 million and “aggravated and punitive damages” of $100 million, the statement of claim says.

In the statement, Ijnatieva complained of a “crawling” sensation in her leg wound to Extendicare staff. She was hospitalized to address the chronic wound, and was “shocked and extremely upset to learn that the wound had been infested with fly maggots,” according to the statement of claim.

Gerol “also learned that staff at West End Villa had found that her mother’s wound had fly maggots in it when they had removed bandaging from the leg, after the bandaging had not been cleaned or changed for an extended period of time,” the statement says.

The third legal action, filed in 2016 by Oakley and Oakley against nursing home chain Revera, has not yet been certified as a class action but has grown to more than 90 cases, senior partner Amani Oakley said. A statement of claim has been filed. Revera has filed a notice of intent to defend.

Larry Roberts, senior manager of corporate affairs for Revera, said that residents and staff are the company’s highest priority.

“We work very hard to foster a caring environment,” he said in an emailed statement. “Our staff are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment in which all our residents are treated with dignity and respect.”

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Roberts said that to protect the privacy of Revera residents, the company does not publicaly discuss individuals.

“As the class action suit brought against Revera is before the courts, out of respect for the system and for all parties involved, we cannot speak to the specifics of the lawsuit…” he said.

“We do not believe there is merit in the class action lawsuit and we are prepared to go through the court process.”