When Grochowik got out of bed, raw sewage was flowing up out of his toilet, sink and bathtub.
“It wasn’t dribbling, it was shooting out about 3-4 feet,” Grochowik said. “It was running…just like Niagra Falls.”
Sewage seeped from his bathroom to the hallway and kitchen, underneath the dining room table, he said. It drained under the floorboards and between the heating registers, down to the basement. Grochowik, barefoot, said he used bath towels as a barricade.
Within minutes, “I was up to my ankles in sewage,” he said.
He immediately knew what the problem was: sewage had backed up at the nursing home up the hill from his house.
Grochowik filed a civil lawsuit against the nursing home, Genesis Healthcare, LLC, Feb. 14, seeking fair compensation for injuries and punitive damages.
Grochowik said Genesis has had ongoing sewer problems, caused by adult diapers, sanitation wipes, and other items being dumped in the toilet.
“There was a problem up there and they knew it and here I sit, destroyed, no place to live,” he said.
Grochowik, 59, has been saying at the Holiday Inn in Springfield for the past two months. Genesis offered to cover the hotel costs at about $130 a night “as a good neighbor,” a Genesis spokesperson said, but Genesis stopped paying for the hotel on Friday.
“Unfortunately, we cannot indefinitely underwrite the cost of his hotel, but we remain open to working with the homeowner and his attorney to address damages caused by the incident,” Genesis spokesperson Lori Mayer said in a statement.
Genesis, based in Pennsylvania, operates 400 rehab and assisted living centers in 29 states, specializing in Alzheimer’s, ventilator care and dialysis care.
Mayer said Genesis is working with the town to address the cause of the issues.
Both the town and Genesis say they aren’t responsible for the damages.
“From day one the town felt it was a very unfortunate situation,” said Springfield Town Manager Tom Yennerell. “Genesis has been very responsive to the town’s request to fix the issue on a permanent basis.”
Yennerall said the town has approved a new septic system design for Genesis, with construction beginning in the spring.
Genesis offered to Grochowik $17,500 to fix his home if he agrees to not hold Genesis liable for any future damages, but Grochowik said that won’t be enough.
“This is a lot more damage and they’re acting like someone shot a rock in the window,” he said.
Grochowik’s home on Chester Road is assessed at about $60,000, according to town records.
Grochowik grew up in the house. His parents bought it the year before he was born and Grochowik purchased it from his mother about five years ago.
This was the second time Grochowik’s home flooded with sewage, he said. The same problem happened in 1995, when the house was owned by his parents.
At that time, the town installed a catch and a manhole on Grochowik’s property to block the sewage, he said. The town and the nursing home split the hotel room costs for his family while the Veterans Administration paid for the interior damage in support of Grochowik’s father, a disabled veteran.
Grochowik said there was an agreement for the nursing home to maintain the manhole regularly, but the nursing home hasn’t done that.
“This is the type of life I’ve got to live,” Grochowik said as tears welled in his eyes as he stood in the basement of his destroyed home. “I don’t have a place to live.”
Grochowik, a former machinist, now receives disability payments for leg and back issues, he said.
Grochowik said he can’t afford a hotel or pay for the damages.
His lawyer, Thomas Costello of Costello, Valente & Gentry, P.C. in Brattleboro offered to drive Grochowik to the courthouse in Woodstock on Thursday to file the lawsuit.
“It’s unfair,” Costello said. “He’s entitled for recovery for what he’s been through. He’s got a lot of pride. He’s very angry. He’s very upset.”
