Maryland Nursing Home's Air Conditioner Fails, Residents Suffer in "Intolerable" Heat
With the East Coast suffering through triple-digit temperatures, residents at Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, Maryland faced a "potential harm" situation when the air conditioning system failed at the facility. According to reports, the air conditioning problem began on Friday, July 2, 2010, but, according to residents and employees, the air conditioning system had not been meeting the facility's needs for approximately two weeks.
Reportedly, the temperature reached 93 degrees in the building on Tuesday morning. After a resident called 911 seeking help that morning, the State of Maryland stepped in and ordered Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center to relocate its residents for safety reasons.
As of July 7, 2010, all of Ravenwood's residents but ten had been moved to different facilities until air conditioning system repairs are completed. Those repairs are expected to take at least another week. The remaining residents have been moved to an air-conditioned multi-purpose room where they are sleeping on cots, beds, and mattresses on the floor.
