Infuriating! Six Found Dead in Florida Nursing Facility; Death Toll Expected to Climb

Police officers talk to an employee at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Five patients at the nursing home died, in what law enforcement officials believe to be heat related. The nursing home lost power during Hurricane Irma. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Accidents happen, but something like this absolutely should not have. Six patients at a Hollywood, Fla. nursing home have been found dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

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With a hospital less than 60-feet away with generators keeping the air conditioning running, we have yet to learn why nursing staff did not request help before the situation became so dire.

According to a CNN report from Brooke Baldwin, emergency workers said the temperatures inside the building were approaching 110 degrees.

Doctors have confirmed the deaths of six patients so far but also indicate others were admitted in such poor condition they aren’t expected to survive.

For interminable days before Irma hit preparation measures were discussed ad nauseum. The administration and nursing staff at had more than enough time to prepare for the eventuality that they could lose power or worse. At the very least to let family members know if they could not meet basic standards of preparedness, like keeping the elderly and frail from dying in a 110-degree tomb.

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Gov. Rick Scott has said he will “aggressively demand answers on how this tragic event took place.”

As someone who has been an immobilized patient for seven months in a nursing and rehabilitation facility, I can only imagine how helpless and utterly panicking being in this facility must have been.

And as someone with a sister who has been a head nurse and is an administrator for a large nursing facility in the Pacific Northwest, I can say I understand the issues of working in the nursing field, but people died needlessly under their care and there must be accountability for that.

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