Nursing home owner appeals 7 license revocations after Ida

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Conditions deteriorated at a warehouse housing evacuated nursing home patients, five of whose deaths were linked to Hurricane Ida, because widespread and unexpected storm damage interrupted essential services, the nursing homes' owner says.

Days after Ida’s Aug. 29 landfall, the state Department of Health found the warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish, north of New Orleans, filthy and unsafe and moved more than 800 patients to facilities around Louisiana. It canceled the licenses Sept. 7.

State health officials cited cruelty or indifference, neglect, and failure to report neglect among several reasons for revoking Bob Dean's seven nursing home licenses.

“There was no cruelty or indifference to the welfare of any of the residents,” attorney John S. McLindon wrote in a letter asking the Louisiana Department of Health to restore the licenses. “The nursing facilities were in substantial compliance with the nursing facility licensing laws, rules, and regulations."

Department spokeswoman Aly Neel said Friday that the active investigation kept her from commenting on Dean's letter, which McLindon filed Wednesday and made available Thursday afternoon.

She referred a reporter to the department's previous statements, including the revocation letters.

Dean’s letter doesn’t respond to allegations that he lied about a matter under investigation, during what the department described as “a campaign of threats, intimidation and attempts” to derail its work.

Dean sent inspectors and other officials text messages that were “vile, repulsive, and lacking any professionalism or basis in fact,” the state said.

“I cannot find the statements that they claim are false. If I could find them I might be able to provide a response,” McLindon said in a telephone interview.

Dean also...