Early Wednesday

Adams said she felt “really, really dizzy” and “horrible” because of the heat.

After hearing the two Code Blue calls, she asked her mom several times if she wanted to go to the hospital. Her mom didn’t want to leave.

But Adams was feeling so tired and overwhelmed by the heat that she decided to go home and take a shower. She hoped FPL would have restored power to the air conditioning by the time she returned.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Adams said.

Before she left, she made her mom drink three more cups of water and opened the window as much as possible. She wedged the bathroom door open so that air from a bathroom vent was feeding into her mom’s room, and she set up the fan to keep the air moving.

Adams said she asked a nurse to watch out for her mom while she dashed to her home nearby. As she left, about 5 a.m., she saw an ambulance pulling up.

When she returned to the nursing home, between 7 and 8 a.m., dozens of police officers had blocked off the surrounding area and traffic was gridlocked. At the hospital’s auditorium, anxious family members waited with clergy to hear who had died and who had survived. They were told that five people were dead.

“I was so scared and I felt so guilty,” Adams said. “It was like waiting for Judgment Day. And when they said my mom [had been transferred to hospital] ... it was like the happiest day of my life.”

Eventually, eight patients were pronounced dead between 2:55 a.m. and 3:09 p.m. on Sept. 13. They were Gail Nova, 70; Estella Hendricks, 71; Eatherly, 78; Bobby Owens, 84; Hibbard, 84; Miguel Antonio Franco, 92; Manuel Mario Mendieta, 96; and Albertina Vega, 99.

A ninth patient, Carlos Canal, 93, died six days later in hospice care. The 10th, Martha Murray, 94, died Wednesday, also in hospice care. And an 11th person, Constance Alice Thomas, 94, died Thursday.

Adams’ mom, Christine Cooper, was treated for dehydration and respiratory distress and is recovering at a rehabilitation center in Pompano Beach.

Ray Granger, 72, also survived.

Granger said he couldn’t remember how long he was in the heat before residents were taken out of the building in wheelchairs and moved to hospitals.

“When you’re there, days seem to go by,” he said. “It didn’t seem like there was any air coming out at all, but they had these little portable air conditioning units in the hallway. One of the hoses had cold air blowing out going into my room, so I could feel a little bit of a breeze.”

Granger said he realized the gravity of the situation only later. “I just figured I’d dodged a bullet.”

Investigators have not yet released their findings about the causes of death because Hollywood police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Broward State Attorney’s Office are investigating whether a crime occurred. State regulators shut down the home, though nursing home officials are aggressively fighting that, and legislators are looking at introducing new laws to prevent another tragedy. Several families have hired attorneys and some civil lawsuits, alleging neglect and wrongful death, have already been filed.

Adams said she believes there is plenty of blame to go around — from FPL to state regulators to the governor.

Ultimately, though, “the responsibility does lie with Hollywood Hills because we placed our loved ones in their hands for them to take care of them and, the administration there, they are responsible for this,” Adams said.