At least eight residents dead at Florida nursing home after power outage

Five people died in a Florida nursing home that lost power following Hurricane Irma, Broward County mayor Barbara Sharief said on Wednesday.

“Although the details of these reported deaths are still under investigation, this situation is unfathomable”, he said.

Stepped-up safety checks came after the eight deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, which shocked Florida’s top leaders even as they surveyed destruction from a storm that spread its punishing effects across the entire state. As a precautionary measure, police are checking the other 42 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the city of Hollywood, Sanchez said.

Sanchez noted the department believes the deaths are connected to the loss of power and air conditioning during the storm. “Men in hard hats are attractive!” said one of the women, obviously just joking with the Wisconsin men, but also making it clear that she would like it if they would get the power turned back on at her house.

No other information was immediately known. “Unfortunately, early this morning several patients experienced distress and there were three fatalities at the facility and three at the hospital they were transferred to”, Carballo added.

NPR’s Jon Hamilton went to the nursing home earlier today and joins us now. There’s been a bankruptcy, a change of ownership and Medicare inspectors have given this place below-average ratings.

“There are a number of critical patients”, Story said. A dozen more were taken to a nearby emergency room, and 115 people were evacuated from this facility.

The nursing home’s licensee is Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills LLC, which is owned by a doctor named Jack Michel.

“There was no air conditioning”, Katz said.

“It’s very, very hot here”, she said.

The patients, most of whom were being treated for respiratory distress and heat-related complications, are thought to have died due to problems with the lack of air-conditioning in the building. Another 18 patients in an adjacent behavioral health facility also were evacuated.

Six of the deaths were caused by heat related issues.

“The Center and its medical and administrative staff diligently prepared for the impact of Hurricane Irma”.

Florida officials, including Governor Rick Scott and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, greeted Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in Fort Myers, Florida. Police said they have opened an investigation into possible criminal negligence.

The home said in a statement that the hurricane had knocked out a transformer that powered the AC.

Officials initially said as many as 158 people had been moved from the center; on Thursday, police clarified that 145 patients were sent to Memorial Regional Hospital – 141 from the center and four from an adjoining facility.

The Lower Keys – including the chain’s most distant and most populous island, Key West, with 27,000 people – were still off-limits, with a roadblock in place where the highway was washed out.

“Based on observation and interview, it was determined that the facility failed to handle, store, process, and transport linens so as to prevent the spread of infection”, one part of the report said. The two states hardest hit were Florida, where about 3.5 million customers had no power as of Wednesday afternoon, and Georgia, where the number of homes, businesses and organizations affected was nearly 440,000.

The storm has presented risks and challenges for the elderly population in Florida, where about 1 in 5 residents are 65 or older.

Including the nursing home deaths, at least 25 people in Florida have died under Irma-related circumstances, and six more in SC and Georgia, many of them well after the storm had passed.

The five people who died Wednesday in South Florida were part of a mounting death toll that also included two people in Georgia killed when trees fell on them and a man in Winter Park, Fla., near Orlando, apparently electrocuted by a downed power line in a roadway.