Family of boy who died in Va. group
home files $5 M suit
Another article:
Group home faulted in autistic boy's death He
choked on his own vomit while being held; CEO disputes the report
December 22, 2006
WINCHESTER, Va.
Associated Press
The family of an autistic and
mentally retarded boy who died while being restrained at a group
home has filed a $5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Grafton
School Inc.
Garrett Halsey, 13, died in the
Grafton group home on Dec. 23, 2004. The boy had arrived at the
home, which provides care for youths with behavioral problems and
disabilities, one day earlier.
"A total of six people were used to
restrain Garrett, one of whom sat on his back," says the lawsuit,
which was filed Wednesday in Winchester Circuit Court.
The complaint alleges staff members
used a prohibited takedown maneuver to restrain Garrett, failed to
address the emergency when the boy was dying, did not know the
location of resuscitation equipment, and failed to recognize signs
of stress during the restraint.
"Garrett's restraint was continued
while he vomited and (he) was not released by the staff until they
noticed that his ear was blue," the complaint says. "Vomiting is a
sign of distress and everyone should have moved off of Garrett
immediately and given him emergency treatment."
Christopher A. Tuck, a lawyer for
the family, said an autopsy determined the primary cause of
Garrett's death was asphyxiation caused by vomiting while in an
excited state.
Grafton's chief executive officer,
James G. Gaynor, said he could not comment on the lawsuit but added:
"The entire staff at Grafton continues to mourn the unfortunate and
tragic accident that took place two years ago."
Tuck said Garrett's family hopes
the lawsuit will prompt the group home to make changes that will
avert similar tragedies.
"This is any parent's nightmare,"
he said.
A state investigation of Garrett's
death, completed in January, concluded that Grafton's staff was
uninformed and ill-prepared to handle Garrett, who was 6 foot, 241
pounds.
The investigation was conducted by
representatives from the state Department of Education, Department
of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services,
and Department of Social Services.
In 1958, Ruth Birch started the
Grafton School for her son, who was disabled. It has grown to
include homes in Winchester, Berryville and Richmond.
____________________________________
Group home faulted in autistic
boy's death He choked on his own vomit while being held; CEO
disputes the report
February 2, 2006
BY MICHAEL MARTZ
On Dec. 23, 2004, a 13-year-old boy
choked to death on his own vomit while being held face down on the
floor of a Winchester group home by as many as six members of the
staff paid to care for him.
The boy, who was autistic and
mentally retarded, had arrived the day before at the group home
operated at 920 Frederick Ave. by Grafton School Inc., one of
Virginia's biggest providers of care for youths with behavioral
problems and disabilities. He was placed in the Grafton facility,
about five hours from his home in Southwest Virginia, because of
aggressive behavior that had caused him to be committed to two state
institutions earlier that year.
A state investigation of the death
has concluded that the group home's staff was uninformed and
ill-prepared to handle the boy, who was 6 feet tall, weighed 241
pounds and had limited ability to express himself. The
investigation, completed last month, also found that the staff used
an inappropriate form of restraint on the boy and did not relent
until he began to turn blue.
"There is evidence to support that
staff continued to hold [the boy] in a lying-down restraint when he
began vomiting," the report states in respect to one of 12 alleged
violations of Virginia interdepartmental regulations for group
homes. "Vomiting is a sign of distress. Staff ignored vomiting as a
sign of distress."
The home's staff also failed to
respond quickly enough to the boy's distress with mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation, partly because the necessary safety equipment
couldn't be found, the report states.
Grafton, a nonprofit organization
that has operated in Virginia since 1958, was to deliver a required
plan to state officials today to correct the problems identified by
the investigation.
However, Grafton Chief Executive
Officer James G. Gaynor II took strong exception to the state
report. "We're certainly very much in disagreement with many of the
findings," he said Tuesday.
Group homes are a hot topic in this
year's General Assembly session because of concerns about the care
they provide, as well as their relationships with their surrounding
communities. Most of the care is publicly funded by state and local
governments, or the federal Medicaid program.
The homes are licensed by different
agencies responsible for children and adolescents, using a common
set of interdepartmental regulations. In Grafton's case, the
Virginia Department of Education is the state agency that licensed
the home and led the investigation.
However, the education department
was assisted by the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental
Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services, and its Office of Human
Rights.
The Winchester Department of Social
Services also participated in the investigation but issued a
separate report based on child protective service regulations. The
report found that the group home was not guilty of abuse and neglect
under those rules in the boy's death.
In addition to violations of
interdepartmental regulations for group homes, the state
investigation cites Grafton for eight alleged violations of state
mental-health standards and eight alleged violations of human-rights
standards for people in therapeutic programs. The most serious was
the alleged lack of information about the boy's behavior and medical
condition when he was admitted to the home.
"The information collected at the
point of admission is significantly inadequate, especially medical
information," the mental health department states.
Virginia already has issued Grafton
a six-month provisional license for the group home at 920 Frederick
Ave., according to the education department. The provisional license
is a temporary measure to allow the owner to make changes in the way
it operates the home and cares for its residents to bring it into
compliance with state regulations.
Grafton, based in Winchester,
operates 23 group homes across Virginia, including 12 in the
Richmond area, and a large residential facility in Berryville. Each
home is licensed separately, so the investigation's findings apply
only to the home in which the boy died.
The nonprofit organization has been
a linchpin for care of people with behavioral problems related to
developmental disabilities, especially autism. The Virginia Autism
Resource Center, with offices in Midlothian and Winchester, is a
division of Grafton.
Mount Rogers Community Services
Board, the Marion-based agency that referred the boy to Grafton,
would not comment on the case or the report.
However, Executive Director Lisa
Moore said Grafton is an important option for communities that
cannot find the special care these children need closer to their
homes. "Grafton is a resource that we use once we've explored
everything else," she said.
Moore added that her agency also
tries to find help for children outside of state institutions. "I
don't think being in an institution for a long time is a good
alternative either," she said.
The boy, whose name was blacked out
of a report provided to The Times-Dispatch by the Department of
Education under the Freedom of Information Act, had been admitted to
the Southwestern Virginia Training Center in Hillsville twice in
2004 to give his family respite from behavior that had become
increasingly aggressive at home and school, the report said.
In November 2004, he was admitted
to the Southwestern Mental Health Institute in Marion, where he
remained until he was admitted to Grafton on Dec. 22, 2004, the day
before he died. The state investigation found that the group home
had not collected information about his stay at the training center
and partial information from the mental hospital.
"This is particularly troublesome,"
the report states, "when it is understood, that prior to admission
to Grafton, the student spent considerable time at these two
facilities."
Contact staff writer Michael Martz
at mmartz@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6964.
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