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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 27 augusT 2019

Florida nursing home employees charged in patient deaths

Associated Press ward County.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) Hollywood Police spokes-
— Four employees of a Flor- woman Miranda Grossman
ida nursing home where 12 said authorities would with-
people died in sweltering hold comment until a news
heat after a hurricane cut conference planned for
power were charged Mon- Tuesday.
day, at least three of them Attorney Jim Cobb said
with aggravated man- none of the employees un-
slaughter, their attorneys derstood why they were
said. being charged . He said
Nursing home patients at Carballo and other admin-
the Rehabilitation Center istrators were repeatedly
at Hollywood Hills, ranging told before the storm that
in age from 57 to 99, began they could call then-Gov.
dying three days after Hur- Rick Scott's personal cell-
ricane Irma swept through phone directly for help.
in September 2017. Cobb said they called five
The center, which housed times, but never heard
about 150 patients at the back from Scott.
time, did not evacuate Cobb said the administra-
any of the residents as the tors "sat there languishing
temperature began rising, waiting for the cavalry to Attorneys for the defendants Lawrence Hashish, left, David Frankel, right, and paralegal Juliana
even though a fully func- come. ... They never, ever Marulanda, center, walk into the Broward County Jail on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, in Fort Lauder-
tional hospital was across came." dale, Fla.
the street, investigators Attorney Lawrence Hash- Associated Press
said. The home's license ish remarked that "the real
was suspended days after crime is that the state is the air-conditioned Memo- da Power & Light, which he one of the female patients
the storm and it was later looking to blame selfless rial Regional Hospital. He said was supposed to arrive had a temperature of 107.5
closed. caregivers and the evi- said the hospital had been within six hours after the first degrees (42 Celsius), the
Former Rehabilitation Cen- dence will show that no sending patients to the patient became acutely ill. highest she had ever seen
ter nurse Sergo Colin and crime was committed." nursing home. FPL issued a statement in her 12-year career. Later
administrator Jorge Carbal- Scott, now a U.S. senator, "These were very fragile Monday noting that some that morning, she said, an-
lo were each charged with said in a statement that the people," he said. "Evacu- parts of the home did have other patient topped that
12 counts of aggravated nursing home should have ating them could have power restored after the with a temperature so high
manslaughter, according called 911. caused more damage." storm, but Frankel said the it couldn't be measured.
to jail records. Nurse Althia "Nothing can hide the fact Memorial spokeswoman blown transformer that had The deaths at the nursing
Meggie was charged with that this healthcare facility Kerting Baldwin said she caused the air conditioning home recalled a similar
two counts of aggravated failed to do their basic duty couldn't immediately con- to fail was never fixed. tragedy in New Orleans in
manslaughter and two to protect life," he said. firm or deny that the hos- In its statement, Florida 2005: Moments after Hur-
counts of tampering with But attorney David Frankel pital sent patients to the Power & Light added that ricane Katrina ruptured le-
evidence. insisted that the staff did nursing home but said "that "those customers who have vees, floodwaters filled St.
All three turned themselves everything they could to would be unusual." She said electricity dependent Rita's nursing home, rising to
in at the Broward County keep the patients, some of if the nursing home was medical needs should call the ceiling of the one-story
Jail on Monday and were them in hospice, cool and asked to take patients and 911 if they are without pow- facility in a matter of min-
scheduled to appear in hydrated. They brought in its air conditioning was out, er and in a life-threatening utes and killing 35 patients.
court Tuesday, their attor- small air conditioners and it should have declined. situation." The home's owners, Salva-
neys said. fans, he said. Memorial's doctors and Craig Wohlitka and other tore and Mabel Mangano,
Nurse Tamika Miller was be- He also criticized the no- staff began evacuating paramedics from Holly- were acquitted of negli-
ing held in the Miami-Dade tion from investigators and the nursing home after sev- wood Fire-Rescue testified gent homicide and cru-
County jail on unspecified some family members of eral dead and seriously ill last year that they were elty charges by a jury that
charges, according to the deceased that staff patients arrived in the hos- haunted by the deaths of deliberated for less than
the jail's website. She was should have taken the pa- pital's emergency room. patients at the home. two hours. Cobb was their
awaiting transfer to Bro- tients across the street to Frankel also criticized Flori- Fire Lt. Amy Parrinello said attorney.q