FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Three elderly victims stuck in a nursing home for days without air conditioning after Hurricane Irma had body temperatures ranging from 107 to 109.9 degrees, making them "far too late to be saved," state health care regulators revealed Wednesday.
Normal body temperature is 98.6.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration took further steps Wednesday to prevent the 152-bed Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills from operating, after eight died Sept. 13. A ninth victim died Tuesday.
The agency, in an emergency license suspension order, said residents of the facility did not get timely care because "trained medical professionals at the facility overwhelmingly delayed calling 911." State officials blamed the nursing home for not evacuating residents across the street to Memorial Regional Hospital, a major medical facility with functioning air conditioning.
The nursing home also allegedly made many late entries into patients' medical records _ logged hours after a nurse visited the patients.
Agency Secretary Justin Senior said: "This facility absolutely cannot continue to have access to patients," describing the care as "gross medical and criminal recklessness."
The state's action came after the nursing home filed a lawsuit in a Tallahassee court Tuesday, denying any wrongdoing and seeking to reopen and admit residents once again. All patients were evacuated Sept. 13 after hospital workers and city emergency personnel ran room to room, discovering people severely ailing or already dead.
"There is no longer any emergency condition at the nursing home specifically or in the state of Florida generally ... all electrical power for central air conditioning to Hollywood Hills was fully restored," the lawsuit states, arguing for the home's reopening.
A criminal investigation is underway by the Hollywood Police Department and Gov. Rick Scott has vowed move aggressively to find answers to what happened to the dead, who ranged in age from 70 to 99.
According to health regulators, Carolyn Eatherly's temperature was 108.3 when she arrived at the hospital at 4:33 a.m. on Sept. 13., according to the order. She died less than a half-hour later.
Medical records from the nursing home showed her temperature taken at 4:42 a.m. was 101.6 degrees. But she was already at the hospital then.
"It's extremely disturbing that the facility made a late entry claiming the temperature of 101.6, when the resident was already dying at the hospital with a temperature of 108.3," the Agency for Health Care Administration order states.
Another resident was discovered with "bluish lips." The person's temperature was documented at 107 degrees, and succumbed to heat stroke, the state contends.
Gail Nova, was alert with flushed skin, according to nursing records. She arrived at a hospital at 6:42 a.m. and died seven minutes later, with a post-death temperature of 109.9 degrees.
Estella Hendricks' skin was described as "hot" and her body temperature was 103.3 degrees when emergency personnel found her. She died less than an hour later with a documented temperature of 108.5 right before her death.
