Ninth patient from evacuated Hollywood nursing home dies.
Medical examiner conducting inquiry
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the death of a ninth nursing home resident who was evacuated from The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills.
Carlos Canal, 93, died in hospice care shortly after midnight Monday, Broward Medical Examiner Dr. Craig Mallak said.
He was evacuated from the nursing home during the power outage at 1:18 a.m. on Sept. 12 and brought to Memorial Regional across the street, officials said.
His family made the decision to move him to hospice care a few days later, Mallak said. Canal died Tuesday at 12:20 a.m.
Over a 12-hour span on Sept. 13 eight of the home’s other residents died.
The first, a 99-year-old woman, was found dead in the home shortly before 3 a.m. The eighth, an 84-year-old woman, died in the hospital shortly after 3 p.m.
The medical examiner said he could not release any medical conditions or treatment Canal was receiving.
“We are working on it but we want to make sure we don’t make the wrong call,” Mallak said. “We are trying to get all the medical records to see how much was heat and how
much is natural disease.”
With seniors who already have medical problems, it is more complicated to figure out if the death was caused by heat or “another intervening reason,” he said.
The investigation will likely take a few days and Hollywood police are declining to allow any of the autopsy findings in all nine deaths to be released because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
The mass tragedy has resulted in officials from the nursing home, Florida Power & Light and Broward County blaming one another.
Some of the victims’ relatives say they blame the owners and staff at the nursing home. Others jumped to the defense of workers who, they say, went out of their way to be kind and compassionate. They blame FPL and Broward County for not having a proper plan to restore power to nursing homes quickly.
Gov. Rick Scott came out with strong words Tuesday night, putting the onus on the nursing home.
“No amount of finger pointing by the Hollywood Hills Rehabilitation Facility and Larkin Community Hospital Behavioral Health Services will hide the fact that this healthcare facility failed to do their basic duty to protect life,” Scott said in an emailed statement.
“This facility is failing to take responsibility for the fact that they delayed calling 911 and made the decision to not evacuate their patients to one of the largest hospitals in Florida, which is directly across the street.
“The more we learn about this, the more concerning this tragedy is,” he said. “The families of those who trusted the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills deserve answers and those responsible for this horrific behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”