The family of one of three people who died the same day at a Forest Hills nursing home will have his body exhumed next week to determine, to their satisfaction, what killed him.

Aldo E. Giannini, 85, of Turtle Creek, a retired postal service employee, died Nov. 10.

"It was a hard decision, but it needs to be done so the family can find some peace about what happened to my father," said Giannini's daughter, Kim Bogesdorfer of Monroeville. "I have to do that for him."

Bogesdorfer initially was told her father died peacefully in his sleep at Juniper Village of Forest Hills. An aide later told family members that Giannini was "so sick, he threw up about 10 times," said Bogesdorfer's cousin, Debbie Stoneberg of North Huntingdon.

Several family members said they went to the nursing home that day and became ill. While they were there, Allegheny County Health Department workers were investigating an outbreak of flu-like symptoms, Stoneberg said.

The Health Department determined the outbreak was norovirus, a fairly common pathogen, spokesman Guillermo Cole said. Investigators could not pinpoint how it spread, he said.

"We were hampered by the poor recall of the residents," he said. "But we did not think norovirus was a factor in any of the deaths."

Noroviruses, recognized as a leading cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks in the United States, can spread through contaminated food, water or surfaces, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Outbreaks involve people of all ages, in various settings.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office determined Giannini died from cardiac arrest. The other two people who died that day were in hospice care. The causes of their deaths were not available.

Jeanine Genauer, a spokeswoman for Juniper Communities of Bloomfield, N.J., the parent company of Juniper Village, said she could not discuss specific patients because of privacy laws.

After an investigation into the deaths, the state Department of Public Welfare cited Juniper Village for violations relating to CPR training. It must hold a CPR refresher course for employees by Feb. 25. No further action is pending unless the home doesn't comply with the order.

Former Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht will perform an autopsy on Giannini. The fact that three people died the same day at the same facility would have concerned him, Wecht said.

"What are the odds on something like that?" he said.

Were he in office, Wecht said, he "would have immediately moved to obtain the three bodies and gotten them to the coroner's office" for autopsies and review the records. If he believed there were unresolved questions, he would have held an inquest, he said.

County Medical Examiner Karl Williams agreed the deaths of three elderly patients on the same day at the nursing home might be worthy of an inquest, a non-criminal proceeding in which authorities hear testimony and make recommendations to prosecutors. Officials said Williams' office has not conducted an open inquest since a judge in 2005 ruled the District Attorney's Office must consent to the hearings.

"But it only raises a flag if we are notified. Hundreds of people are dying in nursing homes in Allegheny County," he said.

Williams said a review of his office's records related to Giannini's death revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Giannini had physical therapy the day he died and ate three meals, said Bogesdorfer's husband, John.

"The physical therapist who worked with him ... said he did real well," he said.