Residents of four nursing homes in louisiana State officials said 14 people died and 14 were hospitalized after being taken to a warehouse during Hurricane Ida, where the situation was later described as unwell and unsafe.
Louisiana health spokeswoman Eli Neal said a total of 843 residents of seven nursing facilities — all operated by one owner — had moved to a Waterbury Company warehouse in Independence City before Ida’s landfall.
Police said the godown was built to house 300 to 350 people.
Neil said the health department has received reports of people lying on mattresses on the floor, not being fed or changed and not socially distancing to prevent the spread of infection. coronavirus, which is currently ravaging the state.
When the storm struck, the situation rapidly deteriorated, Neil said.
“We know that water had entered the building,” he said, adding that there were also problems with the power generator.
Health officials said on Thursday that they had begun an investigation into the facility.
Hurricane Ida. Fourteen nursing home residents required hospitalization after living in a deteriorating warehouse
Senior residents lying on air mattresses on the floor inside a Waterbury warehouse, while other reports included no social distancing measures in place
Warehouse conditions where more than 800 senior residents stayed during Hurricane Ida were determined to be unhealthy and unsafe
Neil said that when a large team of state health inspectors came to inspect the warehouse on Tuesday, the owner of the nursing home demanded that they leave immediately.
Renetta DeRocia and her sister Susan Duet visited the warehouse on Thursday to visit their mother, Loretta Duet, who uses a wheelchair. His voice choked with emotion, he questioned how his mother was treated.
Derosia said, ‘We are just getting to know how bad it was here. ‘We thought he would have been better taken care of. If I had known, I would have taken him with me.’
DeRosia said the sisters thought their mother, who was living in a nursing home in Lafourche Parish, was being moved to another home with proper nursing beds when she was evacuated before the storm.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said he was “saddened by the situation.”
Edwards said, ‘We are going to conduct a full investigation into whether these facilities, the owners of the facilities, have failed to keep the residents safe and whether they deliberately tried to check on them and determine the conditions in the shelter. Is. obstacle,’ said Edwards. .
Paramedics standby next to a senior citizen at a mass shelter who stayed inside a Waterbury warehouse during Hurricane Ida
Wheelchair next to a Waterbury warehouse where senior citizens were kept in atrocious and shameful sanitary conditions during Hurricane Ida
‘And if need be, we will take aggressive legal action against any responsible party.’
Neil identified the owner of the nursing home as Bob Dean.
The Medicare.gov website rates six of their seven nursing facilities with one star out of five, the lowest possible rating.
They are all in Louisiana, namely: River Palms Nursing, Rehab South Lafourche Nursing, Rehab Mason Orleans Healthcare Center, Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, West Jefferson Health Care Center, Mason Devil Nursing Home and Mason Devil Nursing Home.
The details of the deaths of the four senior residents are unknown as state health inspectors have been turned away from the status of the investigation at the warehouse facility.
The rest of the nursing homes get two stars, which are still considered below average. Five nursing homes specifically received a star for ‘quality of resident care’ under the ranking system.
Independence Police Chief Frank Edwards told WVUE-TV that the warehouse was set up to receive 300 to 350 people, but that number quickly increased to more than 800.
The police chief confirmed that some residents were on air mattresses on the floor, that the dustbins were too small and that there were some issues with the restrooms.
Health officials identified the owner of the nursing home as Bob Dean
One of Dean’s six nursing facilities, Maison Orleans Healthcare Center, has the lowest possible rating, barely more than one star out of five on Google and Medicare.gov.
He said the generators in the warehouse also stopped working a couple of times, and in general, ‘conditions became unacceptable.’
He said, ‘I did not want my mother or grandmother to be in such conditions.
State health inspectors returned to the warehouse on Wednesday and began moving residents.
All were evacuated and taken to hospitals, nursing homes and special needs shelters, Louisiana Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joe Cantor said late Thursday.
“It was a daunting task to get so many people out and to safety in such a short time,” Cantor said.
He said law enforcement officers were already conducting an onsite investigation.
Authorities used ambulances and buses to move residents, Neil said.
In the early hours of Thursday evening, 10 ambulances were seen from the godown next to the water tower and about 50 yards from the railway station.
A handful of wheelchairs stood near the warehouse entrance.
Police Chief Edwards was hesitant to lay any blame, saying it appeared ‘everyone was doing what was best under the circumstances’.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards denied blaming the owner of four residents’ homes for keeping seniors in poor conditions, saying ‘everyone was doing their best’.
“I don’t know what the situation or circumstances were after all those people were evacuated,” he said.
‘They could have prepared for two nursing homes and six more were in danger. Let’s say they had more to vacate than planned and had to decide whether to move them to the facility they had to vacate.’
But Sabrina Cox, who had come to find out what happened to her Aunt Bonnie Carenti, said someone should have called to let her family know that Carenti was in the warehouse.
She said her father lives five minutes away, and that if the family had known, they could have done something to help.
‘To see this in the news and not even a call in four days?’ Cox said. ‘this is unacceptable. Elders should not be treated like this. No one should be treated like this.
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