PORT ALLEN - State regulators cited a nursing home for failures and deficient practices after a surprise visit that came following the death of one of its residents on Thanksgiving Day.

The Louisiana Department of Health carried out the unannounced inspection at Legacy Nursing Home on Dec. 21, 2022. The investigation was opened after resident Robert Gash went unsupervised and was found dead outside.

A fact of death letter determined that Gash died of a heart attack and hypothermia. Sources told WBRZ Gash got out of the nursing home around 2 a.m., and he wouldn't be found for hours. He was pronounced dead at 6:51 a.m. on Nov. 24.

"Y'all just sitting in a nursing home not paying attention to these people," said Yolanda Gash, Robert's sister. "That nursing home should not be open any longer. The ones that do right, I feel sorry for them. But y'all know what everyone else is doing. Y'all didn't pay attention to our loved one."

Gash said her brother was a mental health patient and was living at the facility. She received a call on Thanksgiving Day from a worker who called her from a cell phone.

"I feel bad because if I knew my brother wanted to go home because he was being neglected, I would have gotten my brother out of that place," Gash said. "I was the last one he spoke to. We were going there to get him Thanksgiving morning, and they told me he was dead."

An employee at the facility told WBRZ Thursday, "I worked there over a year, and it's f***** up how they did that guy."

That employee told us that it's clear people are not doing their jobs.

"They shouldn't have let that man out in the cold," she said. "It was not right. All that they did was wrong, and they need to find out what else they aren't doing right."

The letter about the deficiency states that Legacy must submit a corrective action plan to the Louisiana Department of Health - Health Standards Section Program detailing how the deficient practices will be corrected and prevented form reoccurring.

WBRZ reached out to Legacy Nursing Home. We did not hear back.