Nils Lofgren, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and Lofgren’s wife, Amy, are promoting a bill in the New Jersey Senate that would require infection control plans for nursing homes, which were the site of thousands of deaths last year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lofgren’s mother-in-law, Patricia Landers, who suffers from dementia, was able to escape from Brookdale at Florham Park, an assisted living facility, four times last year, according to her family. In one instance during the height of the pandemic, she was found several miles away after the facility did not call police for 39 minutes. Landers tested positive for COVID but has recovered and is now living in another senior facility. “The ordeal which we went through last year with our mom at Brookdale Senior Living is every child’s worst nightmare,” the Lofgrens said in a statement provided to The Record and NorthJersey.com. The statement was submitted to the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in advance of a hearing scheduled for Thursday. Sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, the proposed bill would require the state Department of Health to develop a statewide infection control plan for nursing homes, and to examine ways to make improvements to facilities … Landers’ family spoke to The Record and NorthJersey.com last year after their attorney, Andrew Miltenberg, filed a lawsuit against Brookdale Florham Park and its parent company, Brookdale Senior Living of Tennessee, one of the largest operators of long-term senior living facilities in the nation. The suit alleged that the home didn’t provide the level of care it promised for residents with dementia. Brookdale officials did not comment at the time, citing the pending litigation. The suit was filed in state court in Morris County but is now being heard in federal court where a judge on Thursday denied Brookdale’s request to force the matter into arbitration, according to court documents. Miltenberg said Brookdale’s attempt was “frustrating” and designed to keep information related to the complaint “from being publicly viewable” by moving it out of the courts. Brookdale Senior Living officials did not immediately respond to a request for information about the suit.