ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — 283 elderly patients were stacked side-by-side and head to toe in a church without working air conditioning or sufficient food supply.
That’s what state investigators say happened when a St. Petersburg nursing home evacuated residents without an approved emergency plan during Hurricane Helene.
A recently released report from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) outlined the troubling findings.
Aventura Moratorium by ABC Action News on Scribd
They came after county emergency personnel were alerted to issues by residents’ families during the hurricane.
A day before Helene arrived, Pinellas County Emergency Management officials ordered nursing homes and assisted living facilities in zone A to evacuate.
The I-Team previously reported about 6,000 vulnerable seniors live in facilities in evacuation zone A. “We want to make sure we are protecting everybody in those at-risk facilities,” said Pinellas EMA Director Cathie Perkins at a press conference the day before the storm.
“These aren’t cattle”
The predicted storm surge for Pinellas County was 7 to 9 fe9 feet, leading the county to call for the evacuation of people living in coastal and flood-prone areas.
“We're seeing every year, or every other year, these people being moved,” said attorney Jim Wilkes.
Wilkes has represented thousands of clients in nursing home abuse and neglect cases.
He believes that frequently moving residents puts them at risk for long-term injuries.
“These aren’t cattle that you load on the back of a truck and take up to a higher pasture. And that’s the current model they’re using,” Wilkes said.
A report released last month says even after two hurricanes, Aventura at the Bay nursing home does not have an approved emergency plan.
These must be submitted and approved by county emergency planning committees annually under Florida law.
The AHCA report says the home’s administrator sought a waiver from the Hurricane Helene evacuation order but was denied.
“I was given a call saying that they were moving him out, which they had done before... and that they were going over to the church,” said the family member of an Aventura resident.
She didn’t want to be identified because she was afraid the facility would retaliate against her loved one.
Other family members spoke to the I-Team off the record due to the same concern.
Hundreds piled inside a small church without air conditioning
During Hurricane Helene, buses and medical transport vans took 226 nursing home residents and 57 residents from the company’s assisted living facility to King of Peace Metropolitan Community Church in Pinellas Park, FL.
County emergency officials told the I-Team that the facility did not have working air conditioning or a working refrigerator at the time.
“I did see a few people, quite a few people, in wheelchairs, elderly. I wasn’t really understanding what was going on,’ said John Medina, whose barbershop is located across the street from the church.
The report said more than 20 residents remained in wheelchairs outside during inclement weather
“They were obviously patients. They were in wheelchairs and on stretchers,” said another neighbor. “All day long, it was constant. A constant convoy of these vehicles. All day.”
“They call them medical buses, but they’re not staying in their same environment. Nobody's in there looking to make sure these people are turned and repositioned or that they’re eating timely,” Wilkes said.
The report says law enforcement responded after patients’ family members called 9-1-1.
“They discovered residents on cots smaller than many of the residents’ bodies side by side, head to toe with little room to walk between them,” the report said.
The report says that situation “severely limited access by staff to provide resident care”.
“Continuity of care is almost impossible as it is,” Wilkes said.
The report says “there was a lack of nutrition for residents” and “memory care residents were wandering.”
According to the report, one resident was wearing “only a brief due to the heat” and another “fell and fractured an arm.”
County emergency workers step in
County rescue workers stepped in and relocated the patients to a county-operated special needs shelter at John Hopkins Middle School 10 miles away.
This tied up dozens of police, paramedics, and firefighters for hours.
One resident's relative told us she was not informed that her loved one had been moved a second time.
“I just found out from you,” she said. “Nothing was said that they moved them a second time.”
Hurricane Helene wasn’t the first time Aventura at the Bay had issues with evacuations.
Cynthia Rye says her mother, Hattie Hunt, lived at the facility for two years before her death in April at age 98.
“She was evacuated twice. It was the same procedure two years in a row,” Rye said.
When asked what grade she would give the facility in how they handled the evacuations, Rye responded, “I definitely would give them an F.”
Rye says her wheelchair-bound mother was taken to St. Jude the Apostle Cathedral.
“The way my mother described it they pulled the mattresses off the beds and took them out to St. Jude and put the mattresses on the floor.” Rye said. “She just described it as horrible."
“They need to be monitored with regularity, and it just can’t happen in these scenarios,” Wilkes said.
An inspection report says another Aventura at the Bay resident was injured when she fell in a van while being evacuated for Hurricane Idalia last year.
“Her face was down; her knees were touching the floor. She was squeezed into the sheets. I was unable to move her,” an employee told an investigator, according to an AHCA report.
“I feel like I have to be on the defense”
Aventura at the Bay Administrator Michael Bowman agreed to meet with us in early October.
We requested a copy of the facility’s emergency plan prior to our meeting.
At this point, the state had not confirmed that there was no approved emergency plan for Aventura at the Bay.
Those plans are required to be on-site for public inspection.
“I feel like I have to be on the defense with this interview. Are you coming to talk to us or put us in a questionable spot? I will be completely transparent, but not if you’re planning to tear down everything that we did for our residents,” Bowman wrote in an email.
He later canceled our meeting to oversee the evacuation for Hurricane Milton.
The state report says his emergency plan for that evacuation was rejected since St. Jude the Apostle Cathedral was listed as its evacuation site, even though the church had terminated its agreement with Aventura in February.
Instead, residents were taken to St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs, which is itself within a flood zone, according to the report.
The state has now issued a moratorium on new patients being admitted to Aventura at the Bay.
Aventura at the Bay Statement
Bowman denied an interview request after the release of the state report.
He sent an email with the following statement:
Aventura at The Bay, along with many members of our Pinellas County community, continues to be actively engaged in the recovery process following recent natural disasters. We prioritize the safety and well-being of our residents and staff, and we recognize the concerns surrounding our previous hurricane evacuation procedures. Please be assured that we take these concerns very seriously.
We have worked closely with local and state officials and have ensured that our enhanced and approved emergency preparedness plans are in compliance with the regulatory requirements of our Emergency Operations Center. Our administration and staff continue to work with external emergency preparedness consultants to enhance our protocols and ensure the ongoing safety and well-being of our residents and staff.
We appreciate your understanding and support as we navigate this process, and we are committed to keeping you informed about any further updates or changes to our procedures. Thank you for being a vital part of our community.
Attorney Wilkes says residents' lives will remain at risk as long as facilities continue to operate in evacuation Zone A.
“It’s a guaranteed human tragedy and disaster. And it’s time to stop it,” Wilkes said.
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