FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The trial for a former administrator at a Hollywood Hills nursing home continued in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom on Tuesday, now in its third week.
State prosecutors have rested their case against Jorge Carballo, and the defense is currently presenting its evidence and witnesses to jurors.
Twelve people died after The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills lost power to its chiller, disabling the air conditioning in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
Jurors heard from an EMT who said the conditions at first were bearable, but when the air never came back on, they knew something needed to be done. They also heard from a physician who said evacuating the patients could be harmful to the elderly and frail.
Tuesday, attorneys called witnesses in their defense of Carballo, who has been charged with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter.
Ultimately, 12 patients died in what state prosecutors said were sweltering conditions.
Paramedics like Luis Santana described what he felt inside the building in the days leading up to the evacuation.
“It felt like broken A/C in the middle of the summer,” Santana said. “It wasn’t super uncomfortable, but it was warm.”
Santana testified to transporting several patients, some with a temperature well above 100 degrees.
Asked if it was alarming how high one patient’s fever was, Santana replied, “It was 107. I had never seen anything that high.”
Growing concerned with the air not fixed and more patients falling ill, when Santana asked if they were being checked on, he said a certain employee was being untruthful.
“It was very apparent that he was lying to us that they checked all the patients because there was four dead ones in the back,” Santana said.
Carballo has been criticized for not moving patients across the street to Memorial Regional Hospital, where there was air conditioning, but expert witness and Dr. Bruce Robinson testified that was not the best decision and would be harmful to the patients who were elderly and frail.
“Rather than choosing to sacrifice some residents for the purpose of getting them to a better place, the right thing to do is to hold on and wait for the power to come back on,” said Robinson. “Because usually it comes on pretty quickly.”
In this case, the air conditioning went out on a Sunday and wasn’t restored until Wednesday, three days later.
The state will have to prove Carballo was grossly negligent in order to convict him on the nine counts of aggravated manslaughter he is charged with.