A ninth person has been confirmed dead following the evacuation of The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills.
Carlos Canal, 93, died shortly after midnight Monday, according to Broward Medical Examine Dr. Craig Mallak.
Canal was evacuated from the Hollywood nursing home during the power outage on Tuesday, Sept.12, along with other patients/residents. Throughout a 12-hour span that Wednesday, eight of the home’s other residents died.
Following the incident, Gov. Rick Scott demanded answers -- putting the onus on the nursing home.
“No amount of finger pointing by the Hollywood Hills Rehabilitation Facility and Larkin Community Hospital Behavioral Health Services will hide the fact that this healthcare facility failed to do their basic duty to protect life,” Scott said in an emailed statement. “This facility is failing to take responsibility for the fact that they delayed calling 911 and made the decision to not evacuate their patients to one of the largest hospitals in Florida, which is directly across the street.”
“The more we learn about this, the more concerning this tragedy is,” he said.
Scott said an investigation will determine “why the facility made the decision to put patients in danger, whether they were adequately staffed, where they placed cooling devices and how often they checked in on their patients.”