Emergency Lawsuit Filed Against Hollywood Nursing Home Where 8 Elderly Residents Perished

EMERGENCY LAWSUIT FILED SEEKING RECORDS INVOLVING DEATH OF 8 NURSING HOME RESIDENTS AT REHABILITATION CENTER AT HOLLYWOOD HILLS

 Broward County, Florida

Friday, September 15, 2017

This morning the law firm of Leighton Panoff Law, P.A. filed an Emergency Complaint in Circuit Court in Broward County seeking preservation and production of vital records, documents and surveillance from the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, the site of eight deaths of residents two days ago.

Representing the family of deceased Albertina Vega, 99, John Leighton and Max Panoff are seeking an emergency order protecting and producing the evidence in light of the potential for destruction and alteration of these records.  Mrs. Vega died when she was neglected in the stifling heat inside the nursing home when the air conditioning was known to be inoperable. Instead of caring for Mrs. Vega or transferring her to Memorial Hospital across the street, she was left to die.

State and local agencies have begun an investigation into the eight deaths, including Vega’s, and the Agency for Health Care Administration has barred any future admissions to the facility. The Hollywood Police have also initiated a criminal investigation.

The deaths of Mrs. Vega and the other residents were needless and preventable. Because of nursing home industry lobbying, laws requiring nursing homes to have operable generators were defeated in the Florida legislature.