‘INEXCUSABLE TRAGEDY’
8 deaths tied to sweltering heat in Broward nursing home.
HOLLYWOOD — They entrusted their elderly mothers, sisters and distant relatives to The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills.
That trust, tragically, was misplaced.
On Wednesday, these families learned how their loved ones were left suffering in the smothering and ultimately deadly heat that festered in the wake of air-conditioning outages caused by Hurricane Irma.
Eight of The Rehabilitation Center’s patients are dead and roughly 10 were being treated Wednesday for apparent heat-related illnesses. The tragedy — which again put South Florida in an unflattering national spotlight — was called “unfathomable” by Gov. Rick Scott.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration late Wednesday took emergency action to block admissions to the nursing home.
According to the family member of one patient who lived there, the facility had been without air conditioning for three days. The nursing home had generators but was cooling residents with fans. Only some windows were opened, because the facility also was treating some psychiatric patients — and staffers did not want them to escape.
A total of 115 patients were evacuated after the first deaths were discovered.
Three of the victims were identified Wednesday as Estella Hendricks and Gail Nova, both 71; and Carolyn Eatherly, 78, the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reported.
The nursing home stands in the shadow of a mighty health care facility: Memorial Regional Hospital is within 50 yards. Across the street is world-renown Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
Yet, the nursing home, which has a history of deficient care in