HOLLYWOOD, Fla. _ A 10th nursing home patient died Wednesday, a week after the tragedy at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills began to unfold.
Martha Murray, 94, was the latest victim of the sweltering temperatures in a building that lost power after Hurricane Irma swept through the state. According to Broward Medical Examiner Dr. Craig Mallak, she died at 7:55 p.m. EDT.
When reached by phone Thursday afternoon, her son, William Murray, said his mother died while in hospice care following the nursing home's evacuation.
"I really don't want to talk about it right now, I've got too much on my plate," he said. "She was a good mother and homemaker, that's about all I can say."
He said he did not yet know who was to blame, but felt guilty.
"I'm just struggling with it," Murray said. "I don't understand how she went from going in there and ... I don't know what happened. I'm just sorry I put her there."
A day earlier, Carlos Canal, 93, another nursing home resident, was pronounced dead, officials said.
Canal brought his family of five from Cuba to Miami in 1961 and refused to leave the area even after his son moved to Georgia and his daughter to Texas. Both offered to take him in after he fell ill two years ago and required constant care and supervision, but South Florida was his home and he was determined to stay, said his son, Mario Canal.
"He did not want to leave Miami," his son said. "This guy was strong. That's why he was (one of) the last one(s) to go."
Canal, who came to the Hollywood Hills nursing home in 2015, was evacuated from the center Sept. 13. Soon after, his son's friend paid him a visit, and though Canal was unable to speak, he became animated when he heard his son's name. But they would never speak again.
"I just can't believe it," his son said.
Along with Murray and Canal, eight other seniors _ Albertina Vega, 99; Carolyn Eatherly, 96; Manuel Mario Mendieta, 96; Gail Nova, 70; Bobby Owens, 84; Miguel Antonio Franco, 92; Estella Hendricks, 71 and Betty Hibbard, 84 _ also died. They suffered for days without air conditioning after a tree branch damaged a transformer that powered the AC unit during Hurricane Irma on Sept. 10.
If any more Hollywood Hills nursing home deaths are reported in days to come, Mallak and his team of medical examiners will be careful in attributing fatalities to the heat, he said.
Elderly patients who had returned to the same condition they were in prior to the power outage would likely not be linked to the tragic incident, if they happen to subsequently die, Mallak said.
"We're kind of in unchartered territory here," he said. "This gets a little bit murkier ... That's why we're a little slower on the uptake on this. Every day that goes by, it's going to be more difficult."
Medical examiners will be combing through deceased patients' medical records, interviewing relatives about their conditions and responsiveness prior to their deaths, all in an effort to be clear on whether the nursing home's temperature played a role in those deaths.
On Thursday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement set up a tip line for the public to offer information about the nursing home deaths or the facility itself between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13. The toll-free number is (866) 452-3461.
