Lawmakers to Seek Answers as Florida Nursing-Home Death Toll Rises
Posted October 10, 2017 09:00 am | Public News Service
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida lawmakers will hold a
special hearing this week to look at lessons learned
from Hurricane Irma. This comes as two women who lived
at a Florida nursing home that lost air conditioning
during the storm have died.
Ninety-year-old Cecilia Franco and 95-year-old Francesca
Andrade were the latest casualties after suffering
health complications from being left in the facility's
sweltering heat.
Albert Levin, the family attorney for Cecilia Franco,
says the loss is another devastating blow since
Cecilia's husband, Miguel, died three days after the
storm.
"We will amend the pleadings we've already filed
accordingly to ensure that this family receives justice
for having lost their mother, their father, their
grandmother and their grandfather as a result of this
horrific tragedy," he says.
Hollywood police are treating the deaths as part of an
ongoing criminal investigation. Republican Rep. Shawn
Harrison recently filed legislation to make nursing
homes and hospitals priorities for power restoration
after a storm.
In 2005 a bill that would have required nursing homes to
have backup generators to protect residents failed to
pass after resistance from the nursing-home industry.
Levin says he would welcome a new bill.
"Well, the family wants justice for their loved ones and
they also want to make sure that this never happens to
another family again," he explains. "And if that
requires legislation to ensure that this doesn't happen
again, they are all in favor of it."
The state has suspended the home's license. Last week,
the facility laid off 245 workers, including doctors,
nurses, occupational and physical therapists and others.
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