A Louisiana nursing home owner says he did “very well” caring for his elderly patients during Hurricane Ida, although seven died when hundreds of them were evacuated to a dirty warehouse for days.
Bob Dean Jr., owner of seven nursing homes, allegedly left his posts in disgusting condition as he put feces in deflated air mattresses without air conditioning, nurses told nola.com they worked.
“You’d walk past them and they’d say,‘ Help me, help me. ’I ended up vomiting twice because the smell was so bad,” an anonymous nurse told the dam.
When state investigators showed up to check on patients, Dean initially refused to let them in, claiming at the local WAFB station that the investigators were “illegally” there.
“The fourth amendment says they must have an order to access private property, let alone confiscate people or property, so they got there illegally,” Dean told WAFB.
Seven evacuated residents died and five were considered storm-related, the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement.
Department officials quickly rescued the nearly 850 patients from the disease, but Dean slapped himself on the back.
“We only had five deaths in the six days and normally with 850 people you will have a couple of them a day, so we did very well taking care of the people,” he told WAFB.
The state health doctor, Dr. Joseph Kanter, announced Sunday that he had ordered the closure of the seven nursing homes pending “new regulatory measures.”