FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The manslaughter trial of a former administrator at a nursing home in Hollywood continued Monday.
Authorities say 12 patients died after the air conditioning went out at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills following Hurricane Irma in 2017.
On Monday, it was an assistant medical examiner who took the stand and said that the deaths of the victims were caused by heat exposures and could have been prevented. The defense says Jorge Carballo did what he could to help his residents.
In the second week of the trial, a digital investigator took the stand. The investigator was tasked with obtaining information from the computer of Jorge Carballo -- information that had anything to do with the incident, the timeline of what happened and the patients who experienced the heat for several days.
In court Monday, jurors listened to emails sent by Carballo, revealing that while he did have spot coolers, he needed more to cool the building where patients were overheating and some would later die.
“The issue is a transformer on the pole -- FPL issue. One of the faces is off,” a prosecutor read. “We spoke about spot coolers, any luck? I have seven. I gave Natasha two. I was only able to secure 10 and one has a blown motor -- not enough for our building -- still need more.”
The facility lost power to its chiller, disabling the air conditioning in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
State prosecutors are now trying to prove the tragedy was the result of gross negligence by Carballo, but the defense argues he did what he could to care for the patients and even logged a timeline of his efforts -- a timeline discovered in his computer.
“Sunday at approximately 3 p.m., staff administration realized that the air conditioning was not cooling,” Carballo’s attorney read. “It was determined that the chiller unit which provides cooling to the air conditioning was not working. The administrator immediately directed the director of engineering to deploy the spot coolers.”
The spot coolers were vented into the ceiling and that the defense said may have caused a rapid increase in temperature.
Dr. Marlon Osbourne, the former Broward Assistant Medical Examiner, performed autopsies for several of the victims testifying that the death of elderly patients was caused by heat strokes from two days of heat exposure and that the residents should have been removed from the environment.
“I believe it is foreseeable that someone could have presumed that heat could have affected these individuals . . .in a negative manner,” he said.
The evacuation of the nursing home happened three days later, and while the state said Carballo left the center and went home the night before, he made efforts to have the chiller repaired.
“Logs into FPL website and creates a work order for chiller to be repaired,” his attorney read.
Carballo’s timeline goes on to say that he contacted the governor’s office to report the lack of response from FPL.
State prosecutors have charged him with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter.