Florida Governor Rick Scott in Critical Condition After Hurricane Irma Cleanup Accident-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Florida Governor Rick Scott was in critical condition after suffering an injury during Hurricane Irma recovery efforts.
The Truth:
False reports that Rick Scott was critically injured in Hurricane Irma disaster recovery efforts came from a self-described fake news website.
The Last Line of Defense, which states “everything on this site is a satirical work of fiction” in its footer, made the claim in a series of posts after Hurricane Irma struck Florida in September 2017.
The site first falsely reported that Scott had been air lifted after suffering a fluke injury. Then, on September 11th, the site published a “follow-up” report stating that Scott was in critical condition:
“Governor Scott was struck in the head with a ceramic roof tile this morning while helping a neighbor in his home town clear debris from his driveway. The tile fell from the neighbor’s roof and fwell nearly 30 feet before striking the Governor, knocking him unconscious.
After Lifeflight got to him and stabilized him he was moved to Mercy where his condition has been downgraded to critical. The next few hours in the ICU will be critical. Doctors will drill a small hole in his skull to relieve the pressure or internal bleeding.
Aside from the fact that Last Line of Defense clearly states that it’s not a trustworthy website, claims that Rick Scott was in critical condition can easily be disproved by his social media activity and frequent public appearances in the days after the reports were published. If that weren’t enough, the photo of a patient being loaded into a medical helicopter that appears with the story was taken in 2014 and shows a man injured while paragliding.
This report, and all other posts that appear on Last Line of Defense, should not be taken seriously.