Police obtain search warrant in probe of 8 nursing home deaths
FORT MYERS, Fla.: Police obtained a search warrant on Thursday in their criminal investigation of the deaths of eight elderly patients exposed to sweltering heat inside a Miamiarea nursing home left with little or no air conditioning after Hurricane Irma struck.
The loss of life in Hollywood, Florida, brought the overall death toll from Irma to 82, with several hard- hit Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, accounting for more than half the fatalities.
Irma, which had ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record before striking the US mainland as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, has been blamed for at least 32 deaths in Florida, plus seven more combined in Georgia and South Carolina.
On Thursday, one of the latest deaths reported involved cleanup crews in Coconut Grove, Florida, finding the body of a man under a pile of seaweed in a boat, a local ABC affiliate reported.
The eight deaths at the Rehabi li t at ion C ent r e at Hol lywood Hi l ls, days after Irma struck, stirred outrage at what many saw as a preventable tragedy, and heightened concerns about the vulnerability of the state’s large elderly population amid widespread, lingering power outages.
“It was unnecessary,” Bendetta Craig, whose 87-year- old mother was among dozens of patients safely removed from the centre, told reporters on Thursday.
“I don’t know what happened inside. I wasn’t there. I hope the truth comes out. It is just senseless,” she said.
The facility is one of nearly 700 nursing homes across the state, about 150 of which still lacked power on Wednesday morning when the Hollywood Hills crisis occurred, according to the Florida Health Care Association.
Pol ice, assisted in thei r investigation by state and federal regulators, have said little about circumstances leading to the deaths of the patients, who ranged in age from 71 to 99.
At Thursday’s news conference, medica l worker s f rom an adjacent hospital who assisted in evacuating the centre recounted a scene of chaos and stif ling conditions as panicky staf f scrambled to move overheated patients into a room where fans were blowing.
Facing an untenable situation, doctors and fire officials ultimately decided to transfer all the patients to the hospital, where dozens were treated for respiratory distress, dehydration and heat exhaustion, officials said.
Of the 141 patients who were evacuated, 70 were discharged from the hospital by Thursday, city officials said.
Craig said nursing home staff had assured her before the storm that they were prepared to shelter residents safely through the hurricane and were equipped with generators, food and other necessary supplies.
She questioned whether short staffing and fatigue on the part of overworked personnel may have been factors in the crisis. — AFP