Nursing homes aren’t equipped to provide life-saving A/C in the event of a power outage
Older folks are at a higher risk of heat-related health issues (Elien Dumon/Unsplash/)Soon after Hurricane Irma barreled up the length of Florida’s coast in 2017, temperatures began rising at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, a nursing home located about 20 miles north of Miami. The storm had knocked out the air conditioning, and the facility’s backup generator didn’t have the capacity to restore cooling. Nursing home staff used spot coolers in an attempt to quell the sweltering Florida heat, but did not call 911 until patients were “suffering respiratory distress, and in some cases dying,” reported the New York Times. In the end, after three days without power, 12 residents died of heatstroke, which occurs when the body temperature rises above 104°F.This wasn’t the first time nursing home residents died from sweltering heat in the aftermath of a hurricane. After a generator at the Lafon Nursing Facility of the...