11th heat victim dies

Woman, 94, becomes 11th nursing home death

An 11th person has died as a result of stifling heat at Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, which lost power during Hurricane Irma. The 94-year-old died Thursday. Eight residents died Sept. 13; two more victims died in the interim.

HOLLYWOOD — An 11th person has died as a result of stifling heat at a Hollywood nursing home that lost power during Hurricane Irma.

Constance Alice Thomas, 94, died Thursday at 8:58 a.m., more than a week after eight people succumbed to stifling heat at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills.

Among those who died, body temperatures were as high as 109.9 degrees.

Two other people have died in the days since. Martha Murray, 94, died on Wednesday. Carlos Canal, 93, a Cuban exile who came to Miami in 1961, died the day before.

The eight people who died on Sept. 13, three days after the storm, were: Albertina Vega, 99; Carolyn Eatherly, 78; Manuel Mario Mendieta, 96; Gail Nova, 70; Bobby Owens, 84; Miguel Antonio Franco, 92; Estella Hendricks, 71; and Betty Hibbard, 84.

“My mom survived the evacuation, thank God, but it was rough,” said Claudette Thomas, daughter of the 11th victim. “We are asking for the cause of death. I need to know the cause.”

Thomas moved to Hollywood more than 40 years ago from her native Guyana and settled into the nursing home at the end of July, her son-in-law, George Stoute, said from his home in Ontario.

“She was very kind,” he said. “She had a great sense of humor.”