A social crime: Eight
elderly dead in Florida nursing home after days without air conditioning
By Niles Niemuth
14 September 2017
The death of eight
elderly residents of a nursing home in Hollywood, Florida, north of Miami,
after suffering for several days in sweltering heat without air conditioning
following Hurricane Irma, is not only a horrific tragedy, it is a social crime.
The heat index in
southeast Florida overnight Tuesday into Wednesday was around 90 degrees
Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), unbearable for many of the residents of the
Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills. One person who visited her mother at
the home on Tuesday afternoon said that “it felt like 110 degrees.” Staff
called police early Wednesday after residents woke up sick, and at least one
person was found unresponsive.
Four residents died
at the nursing home, and another four died after being sent to the hospital. At
least 115 residents were evacuated by Hollywood Fire Rescue.
Repairman Dave Long
told Local 10 News that he had been fighting with Florida Power and Light
(FPL), the power company, since Monday to send someone to fix a fuse on the
nursing home’s air conditioning unit that had popped during the storm. “There’s
nothing we can do,” Long said. “We’ve been calling and calling. ... It just
doesn't seem to be going anywhere and I can’t do anything until we get that
fuse popped back in.”
Another woman quoted
anonymously by Local 10 News said that she had called FPL on behalf of her
mother who was in the facility repeatedly since Monday demanding to know when
the air conditioning would be turned back on. “I kept calling,” she said. “And
I said, ‘This is life-threatening.’”
The residents were
left to suffer in the suffocating heat and humidity even as the hospital across
the street, Memorial Regional Hospital, maintained power throughout the storm
and in its aftermath. While the nursing home had a backup power generator, it
was used only for cooking food.
FPL spokesman Rob
Gould sought to pass the blame, stating at a press conference on Wednesday that
the nursing home had not been identified prior to the current Hurricane season
as a high priority facility by officials from Broward County, where Hollywood
is located.
“They identified
which facilities were to be critical top infrastructure facilities, this was
not one of them,” Gould said.
The Rehabilitation
Center at Hollywood Hills, which is affiliated with Larkin Community Hospital,
received a health inspection rating of “much below average” from the Florida
Agency for Healthcare Administration after a review in March found unsanitary
conditions and poor food.
Beyond the immediate
responsibility of the FPL and local authorities, the deaths at the Hollywood
nursing home are a byproduct of the criminal levels of neglect on the part of
the ruling class, revealed in the response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. In
both cases, no systematic measures were taken to facilitate evacuations,
particularly of the elderly and infirm who are not able to drive. Florida
authorities clearly had nothing in place to ensure that its most vulnerable
residents were safe after the storm.
At the same time, the
massive power outage itself is the product of decades of neglect of basic
social infrastructure. Some 10 million people, or about half the population of
Florida, are still without power, which in some areas may not be restored for
weeks. There have been extremely limited efforts to place power lines
underground and fortify aboveground substations to protect the electrical
network from wind and falling trees. This is a privilege limited to only the
wealthiest neighborhoods.
There is a danger
that the deaths in Hollywood will be repeated. The Florida Health Care
Association reported that one quarter of all licensed nursing homes in the
state were without electricity as of Tuesday and were relying on generators to
supply power.
The elderly, infirm
and those recovering from surgeries are among the most vulnerable to illness
and death in the aftermath of major storms. Those in nursing homes are
especially at risk as they may rely on oxygen, ventilators, and refrigeration
for medication to stay alive. There are some 73,000 nursing home residents across
the state, and there are approximately 3.6 million senior citizens in Florida,
many who live on their own or with some form of assisted living.
More than half of
Century Village, a large retirement community in Pembroke Pines, Florida, west
of Hollywood, was still without power and under a boil water advisory
Wednesday. Residents and their relatives sent out desperate pleas for
assistance on Twitter and Facebook. Without functioning elevators, those
confined to wheelchairs were stuck in their upstairs apartments with no air
conditioning, as temperatures rose throughout the day rose to an unbearable 94
degrees Farenheit.
So far there have
been 36 deaths in the US related to Irma and 43 more across the Caribbean.
Multiple deaths in the US have been ascribed to carbon monoxide poisoning from
generators operated inside homes or garages, often out of fear that they could
be stolen if left unattended outside. A seven-year-old girl in Lakeland, east
of Tampa, died of carbon monoxide position on Wednesday. In Orange County,
three members of a family were killed and four more were sickened after a
generator was left running in their home.
Even as the death
toll continues to mount in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, the
mainstream media has hailed the government’s response, giving the Trump
administration a pass and covering up the criminal negligence that has left
millions without power and at the mercy of sweltering heat.
The New York Times proclaimed in a headline
Tuesday that, “Amid Chaos of Storms, U.S. Shows It Has Improved Its Response.”
The article ascribes the “surprisingly contained” death toll to lessons
supposedly learned in the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, including
the massive growth of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Washington Post meanwhile proclaimed that the
Trump administration had won “cautious praise” for its response to both Harvey
and Irma.
The attempt to
whitewash the government response to the hurricanes is bound up with concerns
that the devastation wrought by the storms could fuel social anger. Both the
Democrats and Republicans, moreover, are anxious to move on to other
priorities.
Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats,
dined with Trump Wednesday night at the White House, where they discussed how
they could extend their political alliance on domestic legislation. The main
aim of an agreement between the Democrats and Trump would be to push through
major tax cuts for corporations, which the Trump administration has defined as
its most important domestic priority.
THE WATERS ROSE AND CIVIL WAR II COMMENCED.
HOUSTON: ONLY THE POOR DROWN IN THIS COUNTRY!
THE HOUSTON FLOOD -
CRONY CAPITALIST LICK THEIR LIPS OVER REBUILDING.... FIRST, LIKE
KATRINA, CUT WAGES AND INVITE HORDES MORE ILLEGALS IN TO WORK CHEAP!
"Like
Katrina, Hurricane Harvey has lifted the lid on the ugly reality of
American society, exposing colossal levels of social inequality, pervasive
poverty and ruling class criminality."
"The reason why these warnings have been
ignored is not hard to fathom. They have been resolutely opposed by
corporate interests, including the real estate industry, Wall Street and
Big Oil. Their ability, operating through bribed politicians of both
parties, to veto and block elementary measures to protect the American
people, exemplifies the complete subordination of all social needs
under capitalism to the selfish drive of a corporate-financial oligarchy
to accumulate ever greater levels of personal wealth and profit."
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