The Broward Medical Examiner’s office list of those who died while stating the cause of death has not been officially determined: Carolyn Eatherly, 78; Miguel Antonio Franco, 92; Estella Hendricks, 71; Betty Hibbard, 84; Manuel Mario Medieta, 96; Gail Nova, 71; Bobby Owens, 84; and Albertina Vega, 99.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017 11:33PM
HOLLYWOOD, Florida --
Eight patients at a sweltering nursing home died after Hurricane Irma knocked out the air conditioning, raising fears Wednesday about the safety of Florida's 4 million senior citizens amid power outages that could last for days.
Hollywood Police Chief Tom Sanchez said investigators believe the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills were heat-related, and added: "The building has been sealed off and we are conducting a criminal investigation."
Gov. Rick Scott called on Florida emergency workers to immediately check on all nursing homes to make sure patients are safe, and he vowed to punish anyone found culpable in the deaths.
"This situation is unfathomable," he said.
The home said in a statement that the hurricane had knocked out a transformer that powered the AC.
The five women and three men ranged in age from 70 to 99.
Exactly how the deaths happened was under investigation, with Sanchez saying authorities have not ruled anything out, including carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. He also said investigators will look into how many windows were open.
Across the street from the stifling nursing home sat a fully air-conditioned hospital, Memorial Regional.
Broward County said the nursing home had alerted the county emergency operations center on Tuesday that it had lost power, but when asked if it had any medical needs or emergencies, it did not request help.
"It's a sad state of affairs," the police chief said. "We all have elderly people in facilities, and we all know we depend on those people in those facilities to care for a vulnerable elderly population."
When asked why the patients hadn't been taken across the street to Memorial Regional hospital when temperatures became dangerous, Hollywood city spokeswoman Rayelin Storey said, "We can't get inside the heads of the staff and the administrators of this facility."
The deaths came as people trying to put their lives back together in hurricane-stricken Florida and beyond confronted a multitude of new hazards in the storm's aftermath, including tree-clearing accidents and lethal generator fumes.
Not counting the nursing home deaths, at least 17 people in Florida have died under Irma-related circumstances, and six more in South Carolina and Georgia, many of them well after the storm had passed. The death toll across the Caribbean stood at 38.
At least six people died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning from generators in Florida. A Tampa man died after the chain saw he was using to remove trees recoiled and cut his carotid artery.
In Hollywood, after responding to three early morning calls Wednesday about patients in distress, firefighters went through the facility, found three people dead and evacuated more than 150 patients to hospitals, many on stretchers or in wheelchairs, authorities said. By the afternoon, five more had died.
Patients were treated for dehydration, breathing difficulties and other heat-related ills, authorities said.
Nursing homes in Florida are required by state and federal law to file an emergency plan that includes evacuation plans for residents. County officials released documents showing that the Hollywood facility was in compliance with that regulation and that it held a hurricane drill with its staff in October.
Calls to the owner and other officials at the Hollywood home were not immediately returned, but the facility's administrator, Jorge Carballo, said in a statement that it was "cooperating fully with relevant authorities to investigate the circumstances that led to this unfortunate and tragic outcome."
Through a representative, Carballo told the SunSentinel newspaper that the home has a backup generator but that it does not power the air conditioning.
The nursing home was bought at a bankruptcy auction two years ago after its previous owner went to prison for Medicare fraud, according to news reports at the time of the sale.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates nursing homes, gives the Hollywood center a below-average rating, two stars on its five-star scale. But the most recent state inspection reports showed no deficiencies in the area of emergency plans.
Broward County Medical Examiner Dr. Craig Mallak said after receiving some of the bodies for autopsies that the victims had been in poor health, and "it's going to be tough to tell how much was the heat and how much of it was they were sick already."
Florida, long one of America's top retirement destinations, has the highest proportion of people 65 and older of any state - 1 in 5 of its 20 million residents. As of 2016, Florida had about 680 nursing homes.
The number of people without electricity in the steamy late-summer heat was down to 6.8 million. Utility officials warned it could take over a week for power to be fully restored. The number of people in shelters fell to under 13,000.
Elsewhere around the state, a Coral Gables apartment building was evacuated after authorities determined a lack of power made it unsafe for elderly tenants.
And at the huge, 15,000-resident Century Village retirement community in Pembroke Pines, more than half the residential buildings had no power Wednesday afternoon. Rescue crews went door to door in the 94-degree heat to check on people and hand out water, ice and meals.
"These people are basically prisoners in their own homes," said Pembroke Pines City Manager Charlie Dodge. "That's why we are camped out there and doing whatever we can to assist them in this process. And we're not leaving."
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson called the deaths in Hollywood "an inexcusable tragedy" and demanded a federal investigation.
"We need to make sure we're doing everything we can to keep our seniors safe during this difficult time," he said.
In the battered Florida Keys, meanwhile, county officials pushed back against a preliminary estimate from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 25 percent of all homes in the Keys were destroyed and nearly all the rest were heavily damaged.
"Things look real damaged from the air, but when you clear the trees and all the debris, it's not much damage to the houses," said Monroe County Commissioner Heather Carruthers.
The Keys felt Irma's full fury when the hurricane roared in on Sunday with 130 mph (209 kph) winds. But the extent of the damage has been an unanswered question for days because some places have been unreachable.
President Donald Trump plans to visit Naples, on Florida's hard-it southwestern coast, on Thursday.
At the Hollywood nursing home, Jean Lindor, a kitchen worker, said through a Haitian Creole translator that the air conditioner had not been working since the storm and it had been hot inside.
Paulburn Bogle, a member of the housekeeping staff, said the place had been hot but manageable the past few days. The staff used fans, put cold towels and ice on patients and gave them cold drinks, he said.
Flora Mitchell arrived at the home trying to learn the fate of her 58-year-old sister, a stroke patient. She said she last heard from her sister two days earlier and learned the air conditioning was not working.
"We need to know what happened to her," she said. "They haven't told us anything."
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8 dead, others evacuated at Hollywood nursing home without power after Irma
By Caitlin Ostroff and David J. Neal
September 13, 2017 8:57 AM
Eight Hollywood nursing home residents died Wednesday morning in a building left without air conditioning after Irma roared through South Florida, according to Hollywood police and the city.
The home is directly across from a hospital.
Hollywood police have begun a criminal investigation into the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, 1200 N. 35th Ave. while the Agency for Health Care Administration and Department of Children & Families have begun their own investigations. Hollywood Police Chief Tom Sanchez said precautionary checks would be done on Hollywood’s 42 other nursing homes.
The owner of the nursing home also is an officer of Larkin Community Hospital, a medical center with a troubled history.
The Broward Medical Examiner’s office list of those who died while stating the cause of death has not been officially determined: Carolyn Eatherly, 78; Miguel Antonio Franco, 92; Estella Hendricks, 71; Betty Hibbard, 84; Manuel Mario Medieta, 96; Gail Nova, 71; Bobby Owens, 84; and Albertina Vega, 99.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared in a statement, “I’m going to aggressively demand answers on how this tragic event took place. Although the details of these reported deaths are still under investigation, this situation is unfathomable.”
Another part of the release from Scott’s office stated:
“The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills is responsible for the safety of their patients. Department of Health officials have been in contact with Larkin Community Hospital Behavioral Health Services management and the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills over the past three days. Hospital administrators were advised to call 911 if they had any reason to believe that the health or safety of patients was at risk.
Tuesday afternoon, the center reported to AHCA that it had power and access to fans and spot coolers provided by Memorial Healthcare.”
Like many places in South Florida, the nursing home has been without power since being whipped by tropical storm-force winds with hurricane gusts on the edge of Hurricane Irma. The Florida Health Care Association said Wednesday 150 of 700 nusring home facilities around the state didn’t have full power.
Miami’s Mike Carvelli, whose mother is at The Rehabilitation Center, said his brother was there earlier this week and found it “a little warm, but not uncomfortable” and there were portable air conditioning units in use. Kitchen worker Jean Lindor said the center had power from a generator to cook meals, but no air conditioning.
With the assistance of Memorial Healthcare — Memorial Regional Hospital sits across the street — officers and firefighters evacuated 115 people from the center. Concerned family members can call 954-265-3000 to check on their relatives.
Flora Mitchell, a 61-year-old Hollywood resident, came down to the center to find her sister around noon Wednesday. Sweat dripping from her forehead, she said she’d been trying to get information from first responders to no avail. She said her 58-year-old sister, who can’t talk or walk, has been there 10 years.
“I don’t know if my sister is living,” Mitchell said. “Nobody’s telling us nothing.”
Carvelli found staff members proactive after they evacuated his mother. Carvelli said the staff got him and his brother on a conference call to go over the medications and care for her Alzeimer’s.
The Sun-Sentinel reported Estella Hendricks, 71, Gail Nova, 71, and Carolyn Eatherly, 78 are among the dead.
“This is an inexcusable tragedy that frail patients would die of heat exhaustion without it being recognized and taking them to the hospital next door,” read a statement from U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. “I have spoken with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to get to the bottom of this. We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep our seniors safe during this difficult time.”
Three of Wednesday’s eight deaths occurred at the nursing home. One resident already was dead when police got a call about someone having a heart attack. Sanchez said that call came in at either 4 a.m. or 6:25 a.m., but the hospital started moving patients at 7:15 a.m.
“It’s extremely hot on the second floor of the facility,” Sanchez said, but wouldn’t specify if any of the eight victims lived on the second floor of the two-floor building.
The National Weather Service’s tracking in Hollywood put the temperature at 80 to 82 degrees overnight with a heat index of 85 to 90 after a Tuesday afternoon high temperature of 90 and a peak heat index of 99.
The center and its owners have been cited previously for substandard or fraudulent operations.
At least one lawsuit alleging negligence by the Rehabilitation Center is pending. The 2016 suit alleges “the staff and employees failed to develop a proper care plan and properly monitor and supervise the care and treatment provided to Lillian Fuller in order to prevent her from suffering the development and deterioration of infections and sepsis and suffering the development and deterioration of dehydration.”
Fuller, 71, no longer lives at the center.
The state corporate registration for the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, LLC lists South Miami Dr. Jack Michel — the president, director and agent of Larkin Community Hospital — as the company’s manager.
While a nursing home has been at that location nearly 50 years, the Rehabilitation Center’s name and registration are only two years old. Larkin bought what was then called Hollywood Hills Nursing Home and Hollywood Pavilion Hospital in a 2015 bankruptcy auction after fallout from Medicare fraud convictions sunk both facilities.
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Seniors and Heat Illness: Why the Elderly Are More Affected By the Heat
During
the summer months, staying hydrated is more important than ever,
especially during heat waves. The reason for this is simple: Dehydration
diminishes your ability to regulate temperature, and thus, your risk of
developing a heat illness rises dramatically.
Heat illnesses are of special concern to senior citizens, because
older adults are much more affected by summer heat. For instance, from
1999-2009, roughly 40 percent of all heat-related deaths in the U.S. –
nearly 3,000 – were adults over 65 years old.Why Are Seniors More Prone to Heat Illnesses?
When we age, our bodies become less efficient at regulating temperature for a couple of reasons. Seniors over 65 don’t sweat as much as younger adults, which unfortunately is one of the body’s most important heat-regulation mechanisms. Also, seniors store fat differently, which complicates heat-regulation in the body further.Why’s this serious? Well, as the temperature rises, so too does your internal body temperature, especially when you’re exposed directly to the sun or extremely hot environments. Which is why seniors suffer from heat stroke more often than younger people throughout the summer.
There are a variety of lifestyle and health factors that increase the risk of developing a heat-related illness:
- Dehydration
- Chronic illnesses (heart and kidney diseases; blood circulation conditions)
- Prescription medications that reduce sweating
- Salt-restricted diets
- Overdressing
- Lack of airflow or access to air-conditioning
- Living in particularly hot climates (Arizona and Nevada, for example, lead the nation in heat-related deaths)
Signs and Symptoms of Heat-Related Illnesses in Elderly Adults
Early warning signs of heat exhaustion, which may precede the more serious heat stroke, include excessive sweating, tiredness, weakness, dizziness, headache and muscle cramps. Then as exhaustion progresses, symptoms may progress to nausea, vomiting and fainting. Heat stroke, though, is more serious, and it can set in within 10-15 minutes.Heat stroke is caused when internal body temperature rises much faster than it’s lowered naturally. If the symptoms of heat stroke are present, call 911. They include extremely high body temperature, the absence of sweating, confusion, seizure and coma.
Here’s what you can do to help those suffering from these symptoms: First have someone lie down in a cool place, and if you can put a fan directly on that person even better. Then take steps to lower body temperature. Air-conditioning, offering cool fluids, or providing access to a cool bath will also help.
Why Preventing Dehydration Is Important
Studies have shown that when you feel thirsty – just 2 percent dehydration – your ability to regulate heat begins to decline. For seniors, who already struggle to manage internal heat, dehydration can deter the body’s natural cooling processes even more.During heat waves, seniors should be drinking water and juices regularly, and a good rule of thumb is to drink fluids at every meal, as well as sipping fluids throughout the day rather than drinking them quickly. Also, avoiding alcohol can encourage better hydration.