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Police Identify Man Who Died After Sun Exposure At Nursing Home

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
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A 65-year-old man, who died Saturday from cardiac failure, was staying at the Gracewood Nursing Home, 8600 U.S. Hwy 19 N., police said.

Authorities on Monday released the name of an elderly man who died after possibly being left out in the sun at a Pinellas Park nursing home on Saturday.

Wilbert Henry Moten, 65, had second-degree burns on his body and blisters on his abdomen, and was dehydrated when paramedics responded to a call Saturday at the Gracewood Nursing Home, 8600 U.S. Hwy 19 N., Pinellas Park police said.

Moten went into cardiac failure and died, police said.

Detectives are working to determine what happened and whether the man was a victim of abuse, police said, and they are working to determine what staff members were working Saturday.

Moten had no next-of-kin but a guardian appointed to him was informed about his death.

It's not the first time the facility has been the subject of an investigation.

In its latest inspection report, Florida’s Department of Children and Families gave  Gracewood Rehabilitation and Nursing Care just one star. That ranks the 120-bed Pinellas Park facility in the bottom 20 percent of facilities in its region.

According to the Nursing Home Compare site at Medicare.gov, Gracewoodwas flagged for 27 deficiencies in for a 12-month period ending in August 2015. The average number of citations for Florida nursing homes is 6.5.

In its report, inspectors noted broken air conditioners and inadequate dining facilities.

The state has cited Gracewood 29 times since 2008, according to records from the Agency for Health Care Administration. The agency, which measures the performance of health care facilities around the state, placed Gracewood on its watch list after ranking it in the bottom 20 percent of facilities in its region in the areas of quality of care, quality of life, administration and overall inspection. 

The facility received high marks in the areas of nutrition and hydration, restraints and abuse and pressure ulcers. 

In February, Gracewood was fined $2,000 for failure to provide adequate dental care.

Daylina Miller is a multimedia reporter for WUSF and Health News Florida, covering health in the Tampa Bay area and across the state.