Press Releases

Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson issued the following statement in response to the deaths of eight residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills:

"Eight patients at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills tragically lost their lives today because of a ‘prolonged power failure' that shut down the facility's air conditioning system. After the first three patients died, more than 100 others were evacuated to various medical facilities, one of which is just across the street from the nursing home.

"While any loss of life is sorrowful, these deaths may have been preventable. It is an abomination that the patients were not moved mere yards away to Memorial Regional Hospital immediately after the air conditioning stopped working. Based on news reports, the nursing home has been cited repeatedly for safety and other violations. I believe that it and any other facility that has previously put patients at risk should have been on a list of sites to watch to ensure that patients are receiving the care they need. Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez plans to conduct a criminal investigation of this tragedy and my office also will be seeking details about what happened.

"I also received a distress call today from the Miami Jewish Health System about the inability of the generator at one of its buildings to support the air conditioning unit and immediately made calls to help rectify this situation and hopefully prevent another tragedy. I urge every organization in the district that provides care and other services to people to contact my office for assistance if they need help getting their power restored.

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, millions of Floridians are finding themselves in various states of vulnerability, but none more so than those who must depend on others for every aspect of their care. It is incumbent upon our state and local leaders to do everything possible to mitigate the suffering of the most defenseless among us, especially the very young, the aged and the infirmed."