Some nursing homes critical

• By JORDAN BLUM AND MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Sep 5, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Evelyn Blalock was concerned when she visited her mother-in-law in the “sweltering” Alzheimer’s unit at Ollie Steele Burden Manor nursing home on Essen Lane.

“She was literally sweating like she just got out of the shower,” Blalock said Thursday. “In fact, she asked me did she just get out of the shower.

“She didn’t understand why she was so hot and tired,” Blalock said at the nursing home.

Fortunately for the residents, Ollie Steele Administrator Susie Folse helped arrange for a massive portable air unit to begin pumping cool air through the front door Thursday, even though it could not reach every corridor of the facility.

“It saved me from having to evacuate,” Folse said, explaining that all the residents are being fed and cared for under trying circumstances after Hurricane Gustav.

And despite Blalock’s concerns, she said her mother-in-law, Thelma Blalock, is still “treated very well.”

But conditions were worse at some other nursing homes throughout the region and even statewide, where there was no air conditioning and fewer resources than at Ollie Steele.

At Sterling Place on North Boulevard, Administrator Boyd Bander was helping care for his residents and another 180 from a Kenner nursing home that had evacuated. Most were returning home Thursday.

“It’s been a long week,” Bander said in a phone interview, explaining that one of their two generators went out. Critical care for oxygen and dialysis were still up, but air conditioning was in very short supply.

Bander said The Advocate could visit the facility. Upon arrival, some staff members complained about the heat and Bander said the media would have to leave. A reporter and a photographer were barred from talking to residents and then escorted to their cars.

Just across the street at Acadian Rehabilitation and Nursing, Administrator Nicole McIntyre described a situation as “hot as Hades.”

Not only was the home without air and using a makeshift rigging of fans, but McIntyre said someone had siphoned more than 70 gallons of fuel for the home’s generator.

Fortunately, she said, they received a fuel re-supply Thursday.