Heat deaths at nursing home portrayed as both tragedy, crime
Lawyers in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom began sparring Monday over whether multiple overheating deaths at a Hollywood nursing home in the days after Hurricane Irma were the result of a mere tragedy or a criminal act of reckless disregard for human life and safety.
At stake is the freedom of Jorge Carballo, 65, a top administrator of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, which lost power to its air conditioning system when the Category 2 storm ripped through Broward in September 2017. In the days that followed, temperatures soared inside the 150-bed, two-story facility, and a dozen elderly patients succumbed to the effects of the heat.
Four nursing home employees, including Carballo, were eventually charged with manslaughter. Charges against three of the employees were dropped last year, and those employees are now listed as potential witnesses against Carballo, who is charged in nine of the nursing home deaths.
Prosecutor Chris Killoran told jurors Monday that Carballo, more than anyone else, had the power and authority to save lives.
“This is a case of a captain who abandoned his slowly sinking ship, and left not only his crew but the passengers to fend for themselves,” Killoran said. As temperatures rose inside the center, Carballo “basically did nothing,” he said.
Carballo faces up to 15 years in prison on each count if convicted.
Defense lawyer James Cobb said Carballo did everything he could to alleviate the suffering of the patients, ordering medicine, food and supplies before the storm and fans afterward. He blamed Florida Power & Light for the failure to restore power in the aftermath of the storm. Because
he is not a medical professional, Carballo lacked the legal authority to transfer the patients to another facility directly across the street, Cobb said.
He called Carballo a “scapegoat,” taking the blame for the deaths because of the pressure to hold someone accountable for what happened.
The nursing home ultimately lost its license and has since shut down.
The victims, ranging in age from 57 to 99, had body temperatures of up to 108 degrees, paramedics have reported.
The deaths began three days after Irma knocked out a transformer that powered the cooling system. Otherwise, the facility never lost power.
A state report said that before the storm hit on Sept. 10, 2017, Carballo and his staff made appropriate preparations. They purchased extra food and water and fuel for the generator.
Administrators also participated in statewide conference calls with regulators, including one where then-Gov. Rick Scott said nursing homes should call his cellphone for help.
After the air conditioner failed, Carballo and his facility manager contacted the power company. When that didn’t work, they called Scott’s cellphone and county and city officials. No help came.
Temperatures that week were in the upper 80s. On Sept. 12, two days after the storm, patients from the nursing home began arriving at Memorial Regional’s emergency room with temperatures of 103 degrees
and above.
About 6 a.m. on Sept. 13, after more patients arrived, Memorial’s thenhead nurse Judy Frum and her assistant, Tracy Meltzer, walked to the home to offer assistance. Both testified Monday that when they entered, the heat struck them and the home’s staff seemed frantic. Paramedics were already there.
“It was really hot. I can only relate it to opening a car door and the heat hits you in the face,” Frum said.
Meltzer said that when she reached the second floor, she found two men dead in one room and a woman lying in a diaper filled with urine and feces. She heard one of
the home’s nurses say, “They are dropping like flies. We have to get these people out of here.” After she, Frum and paramedics conversed, the fire department decided to evacuate the home and take everyone to the hospital, where a mass casualty alert was called.
“Patients were being compromised to the heat. Some were expired. We made a group decision to take patients out of the building,” Frum said.
Under cross-examination, Carballo attorney David Frankel tried to get Frum and Meltzer to concede that they over-reacted and that the patients would have been better off
staying at the home. At one point, Frankel insinuated that by calling a mass casualty alert, the nurses had attracted national media attention to the situation it otherwise wouldn’t have received.
Frum and Meltzer responded they could feel the heat, see dead patients and others in distress.
“It was not a safe place to be. We removed the patients from harm,” Frum said.
The trial, before Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy, is expected to last four weeks.