8 dead in Florida Nursing Home without power

There are people affected by Irma who were ignored some how. It could have been on purpose or by lack of knowledge. I am talking about elderly patients in a nursing home. Heat affects the very young and elderly differently than others. Their skin is thinner and they have difficulty maintaining a proper body temperature. It can go extremely low or high.  Read all the following links please.

Paramedics were called to the nursing home for patients in distress. Three patients were dead. The nursing home was evacuated due to extremely high heat. Three patients died in the hospital. Two more deaths were reported by the county medical examiner. Most of the patients were treated for respiratory distress, dehydration problems, and various heat related issues which affected their individual medical problems..

Florida is one of four states that require temperature settings at a controlled setting. The facility was without power when  Hurricane Irma hit. It regained minimal power but not for the air conditioners. Staff had a problem getting to work. Tuesday was the day administrators should have been call. The facilities disaster plan should have activated. This is something that the governor and police departments are investigating.

Pray for  the families of the deceased and their friends. Pray for the survivors. If you do not pray, keep all in your positive thoughts.

If you have relatives in a nursing home or an assisted living facility, ask about their disaster plan. Ask to see it.

I watched news feeds and read information from the following links before blogging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida

https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-r-0534.htm

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-nursing-home-8-people-dead-hurricane-irma/

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/health/florida-nursing-home-deaths/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/nursing-home-deaths-florida.html?mcubz=0

http://abcnews.go.com/US/dead-florida-nursing-home-irma-tore-state/story?id=49817477

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/hollywood/hollywood-nursing-home-evacuated

















Florida
Florida regulations state, ““(a) Air conditioning, heating and ventilating systems.

1. All patient occupied areas shall be heated or cooled by individual or central units. Heating units shall be designed to provide a minimum of 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22.22 Celsius) ambient indoor temperature and air conditioning units shall be designed to provide a minimum of 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25.55 Celsius) ambient indoor temperature” (Florida Administrative Code § 58A-2.025).

We have identified four states that specifically require air conditioning in all nursing homes and set specific maximum temperature requirements (New Jersey, Arkansas, Florida, and New Mexico). We also found three states that require it for newer homes (Kansas, Maryland, and Washington).

Most of the patients were treated for respiratory distress, dehydration and heat-related issues, officials said.
The eight victims ranged in age from 71 to 99.
The evacuation included 115 patients from the nursing home and 18 from a nearby behavioral facility.
Three patients died at the nursing home, and three others died Wednesday morning shortly after being transported to local hospitals. The Broward County Medical Examiner announced the deaths of two more patients Wednesday afternoon.

“This was an emergency, a life threatening situation,” she said. “The facility should have transferred people yesterday.”

There were many unanswered questions Wednesday about the role and responsibilities not only of the nursing home, but also of the power company and county and state authorities.