Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Home says pleas went unheeded
Governor’s office disputes claim
The Hollywood nursing home where eight died in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma claimed Friday that Gov. Scott and several state agencies didn’t respond to pleas for help and that Florida Power & Light failed to show up four times to fix the electricity.
FPL refused to confirm or deny the nursing home’s claims. But Gov. Rick Scott’s office released a statement late Friday afternoon disputing the nursing home’s account, saying “at no time did the facility report that conditions had become dangerous or that
the health and safety of their patients was at risk.”
A power outage from the storm shut down the airconditioning system of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills on Sunday, raising the temperature to dangerous levels. After residents were found dead or suffering from cardiac arrest, tachycardia or respiratory distress, survivors were evacuated across the street to Memorial Regional Hospital.
The Hollywood Police Department has opened a criminal investigation, and began searching the center, 1200 N. 35th Ave., for evidence Thursday night. The first legal action started Friday, when a Miami law firm filed court papers to ensure that evidence at the center is preserved. The nursing home is owned by Larkin Health Systems, which is owned by Dr. Jack Michel, a Miami physician.
The nursing home released a detailed timeline Friday that shows what it says are its attempts to get help after the storm knocked out the air conditioning system’s power supply at 3 p.m. Sunday. Its staff reported the outage to FPL, they say. Nursing home officials also claimed its staff left three messages on the governor’s personal cellphone number, which he provided during a conference call before the storm with health care providers, informing him that they needed immediate help.
“FP&L told administrators they were coming in the morning to fix the electrical power for the AC Chiller,” stated the timeline, released by the nursing home’s public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton Strategies. “Then FP&L said they would arrive in the afternoon. FP&L did not show throughout the day. Care continued to be provided to all residents according to protocol.”
The same thing happened Tuesday, the timeline states. Meanwhile, there were eight calls back and forth over two days with the Florida Department of Emergency Management, Florida Department of Health and Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. But despite repeated pleas for help and follow-up calls, it said, nothing happened until FPL workers showed up Wednesday to restore power, several hours after residents started dying.
FPL declined to respond to detailed questions on its actions.
“Because of the current investigations associated with these tragic events involving the nursing home, we are limited in what we can say,” FPL spokesman Peter Robbins said in an email. “What we know now is that a portion of the facility did, in fact, have power, that there was a hospital with power across the parking lot from this facility and that the nursing home was required to have a permanently installed, operational generator.”
The governor’s office said the calls were referred to appropriate agencies, not ignored.
“Every call made to the Governor from facility management was referred to the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health and quickly returned,” said John Tupps, the governor’s spokesman.
Mara Gambineri, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, said the nursing home could have done much more to protect its residents.
“Let’s be clear — this facility is located across the street from one of Florida’s largest hospitals, which never lost power and had fully operating facilities,” she said in an email. “It is 100 percent the responsibility of health care professionals to preserve life by acting in the best interest of the health and well-being of their patients.”
The governor’s office said the nursing home had continued to file routine reports with the state and never notified any agency of an emergency. Although the nursing home’s timeline claims the air conditioning failed at 3 p.m. Sunday, the governor’s statement said the home reported its air conditioning functioning through Tuesday afternoon.
“Until 1:30 PM on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 12th, the facility reported that they had full power, that heating, cooling systems and generator systems were operational and they had adequate fuel,” the governor’s office said. “In their next report, at 5 PM on Tuesday, September 12th, the facility reported that they had partial power, but that their heating and cooling systems and generator were operational. They did not request anything beyond help with FPL.”
The nursing home’s troubles are mounting. The governor has ordered the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration to cut Hollywood Hills from the Medicaid program — action that could force the facility out of business, as Medicaid pays for large percentage of the state’s nursing home care. And a Miami law firm filed an emergency complaint Friday morning asking a judge for an order to protect evidence in the case of a senior citizen who died at the nursing home.
The firm is representing the family of Albertina Vega, 99, who was discovered dead at the facility by staff.
“If the same thing happened to a dog it would be considered animal cruelty,” said attorney John Leighton.
After three “days of residents being forced to live in these deplorable and dangerous conditions,” [Vega] “suffered intractable distress and died as a result of these appalling conditions.”
Among the items the firm wants preserved: surveillance and cellphone video, documents or materials identifying all of the air conditioning equipment, policies and procedures related to identifying patient temperature and manuals that identify the criteria to transfer patients to a cooler area — whether in the facility or to another facility or hospital.
The nursing home “is cooperating with all regulators and authorities as it relates to the ongoing investigation,” said spokeswoman Alia Faraj-Johnson, of Hill & Knowlton’s Tallahassee office. “All evidence and records in the control of the center are being preserved.”
Leighton said he now awaits a court date to have a judge ensure no evidence in the case is altered or “forgotten.”
“Who is more vulnerable in society than a 99-year-old woman with respiratory problems after a hurricane,” he said. “What happened there shocks the conscience of anybody who has a human bone in their body.”
“Who is more vulnerable in society than a 99-year-old woman with respiratory problems after a hurricane?” John Leighton, attorney for the family of victim Albertina Vega