Families scramble to find elderly nursing home patients taken to warehouse ahead of Ida
Source: Washington Post
National
Families scramble to find elderly nursing home patients taken to warehouse ahead of Ida
By Ashley Cusick and Hannah Knowles
Today at 6:53 p.m. EDT
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Families are scrambling for basic information on vulnerable loved ones as Louisiana authorities investigate the evacuation of more than 800 residents at seven nursing homes to the warehouse in the town of Independence. Local officials there soon raised alarms about putrid smells, packed-in mattresses and EMTs allegedly being sent away after residents called for help. The state health department ordered the homes to close Saturday, saying seven residents who were sent to the warehouse had died, with five of the fatalities deemed “storm-related.”
The deaths underscored Ida’s threat to some of the state’s most vulnerable residents — the frail and elderly — 16 years after Hurricane Katrina drowned nearly three dozen patients in a single nursing home. The storm’s death toll rose Sunday as state leaders announced a 13th fatality: a 74-year-old man who they said died of heat exhaustion and lack of oxygen amid punishing temperatures and huge power outages that make it hard to stay cool.
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Authorities have vowed further action against the nursing homes that evacuated to Independence, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) said he is investigating the deaths — trying to determine who moved the patients to an “apparently unsafe” place and who rebuffed authorities’ first attempts to intervene. The state health department said its inspectors tried to visit the warehouse on Tuesday after hearing about “deteriorating conditions” but were kicked out and subjected to “intimidation” from the nursing homes’ owner.
The health department reviews nursing homes’ emergency plans, and The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported that the agency approved a plan for an “alternate care facility” where people from seven nursing homes could evacuate. The health department did not comment on its oversight Sunday, but leaders have decried the conditions at the warehouse. (1)
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By Ashley Cusick
Ashley Cusick is a freelance writer based in New Orleans and a frequent contributor to The Washington Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/AshleyBCusick
By Hannah Knowles
Hannah Knowles is a reporter on the General Assignment team who joined The Washington Post in June 2019. Twitter https://twitter.com/KnowlesHannah
(1) https://www.nola.com/news/healthcare_hospitals/article_3a4d089c-0dce-11ec-8e79-330da52a21b1.html
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/05/louisiana-ida-nursing-homes-closed/
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