Six dead at Hollywood nursing home where Hurricane Irma knocked out air conditioning

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Sun Sentinel

Six people died in a Hollywood, Florida, nursing home that had no air conditioning after Hurricane Irma knocked out power.

Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said Wednesday three people died at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, whose manager, Jack Michel, was once accused of federal and state health care fraud charges, according to the Department of Justice.
...
"We're conducting a criminal investigation into the deaths that occurred here," said Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez, during a press conference Wednesday morning.
...
Police said 115 seniors were evacuated from facility at 1200 N.E. 35 Ave. Not all of their conditions were known but city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said some of the evacuated patients were in respiratory distress.




Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-sb-hurricane-irma-broward-wednesday-20170913-story.html

[niyad]

1. that is heartbreaking.

[Honeycombe8]

2. This shouldn't have happened. They should have a working huge generator, or several.

This is Florida, where hurricanes & power outages are to be expected. Damn.

[Eugene]

8. The TV news says that facility was cited in 2016 for generator issues.

They could not document that they had adequate capacity for a facility of its size.

[Honeycombe8]

10. Well, there you go. Horrible. Just awful people to let that happen. nt

[procon]

3. Local sheriff just said this was now a criminal investigation.

Also looking at Medicare fraud, and Occupational Safety for the workers which is OSHA violations.

Owner of nursing home where 6 died has history of fraud allegations. Dr. Jack Michel settled health care fraud claims of $15.4 million in 2006.

https://www.local10.com/weather/hurricane-irma/owner-of-nursing-home-where-six-died-has-history-of-fraud-allegations

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. He needs to go to jail n/t

[irisblue]

4. did the owners of that senior home learn nothing from Katrina?

[FLPanhandle]

6. Modern buildings in Florida are deathtraps without continuous A/C

Back in the days before A/C, people down here built with high ceilings, large opening windows, opening double doors for cross ventilation, ceiling fans, covered porches to sit on.

Modern buildings are low squat things with sealed windows, no airflow, no covered porches so the sun hits the windows directly, basically death traps in the Florida heat.

Maybe they should go back to the old construction techniques.

[RobinA]

11. Yeah, This

Not just Florida. We build like electricity is a given and it isn't. Buildings that become furnaces without AC, buildings that must be artificially lit at all times of day. Total reliance on the always fickle computer/Internet/network system. The ways a computer network can fail are legion, including bottom line interruption of power supply. Same with the increasing migration away from landline phones. "Oh, that cell tower will always be there, what could go wrong?" And yes, I know landline can go down. I favor having both landline and cell, but in my experience, cell goes before landline. One of these days...

Aside from that, I work in a hospital that can be run completely on generator power, so it is possible. But yeah, generators to require some upkeep from somebody who knows what they are doing, a person who would have to be paid, so there's that. This country is going to cheap itself to death.

[dalton99a]

7. 7th death confirmed

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-sb-hurricane-irma-broward-wednesday-20170913-story.html

[Eugene]

9. Link updated: Now 8 dead.

Eight dead at Hollywood nursing home where Hurricane Irma knocked out air conditioning

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-sb-hurricane-irma-broward-wednesday-20170913-story.html

[Abouttime]

12. Trump said he'd be good for the bottom line

No surprise that this happens under the watch of the Donald the Orange.