Were There Wrongful Deaths At Hollywood Hills?
Brian O Sutter
Wrongful Death
One of the things that many people learn when a severe weather event such as a hurricane occurs is that the most dangerous time is not necessarily during the storm itself. While a storm is a capable of ripping off the tops of buildings and even knocking down trees, often it is the chaos after a storm passes when the danger is greater.For eight seniors at the Rehabilitation Center in Hollywood Hills, this was a tragic discovery that was made when the residents at this care center found their lives endangered not by gale force winds, but heat in their rooms.
A Lack Of Power
The management of the Rehabilitation Center made the decision to not move their residents when news of Hurricane Irma’s approach came. They had confidence in the structural integrity of their building, and were sure that the people in their care would remain high and dry as the storm passed. They were right about their assessment, and even as the hurricane hit the area, the seniors in the care of the Rehabilitation Center staff were well protected against the elements.
Tragically, however, while the building could stand up to the abuse of Hurricane Irma, the electrical power supply could not. This meant that residents of the center went without light, but, more crucially, without the air conditioning that the more sensitive elderly require to help maintain their temperature. Over a matter of days, the residents, still in the building were exposed to excessive levels of heat, and eventually, eight of the residents could no longer tolerate the exposure and died as a result.
The Consequences
At least one of the residents of the Rehabilitation Center in Hollywood Hills is now suing the center for negligence and reckless indifference. How the families of the residents who actually died during the ordeal will respond is still unknown.
On the one hand, the center claims that it made phone calls repeatedly, even to the governor of Florida, insisting that the power needed to be restored for the safety of the residents inside. On the other hand, however, the Rehabilitation Center did not have a back up generator, which is something most facilities with vulnerable residents would have built in to the infrastructure. Another point of contention is that the Rehabilitation Center itself was across the street from a hospital which, due to its own contingencies, never lost power, yet the eight residents were never transferred there.
This means that there is a chance that wrongful death may be at play in this particular tragedy. The elderly are especially vulnerable to heat, and keeping them confined to the building when a hospital with proper environmental controls was nearby seems like a baffling decision. Even if the elderly residents were in poor condition to be transferred to the hospital, it’s likely that the hospital itself would have had both the equipment and the knowledge to safely make such a transfer.
In the end, it is ultimately up to the families of the deceased to decide whether wrongful death occurred at the Rehabilitation Center in Hollywood Hills, but legal practices just like All Injuries Law firm have attorneys experienced in wrongful death, ready to help.