LINCOLN, Neb.—More allegations of neglect are being made against the troubled Beatrice State Developmental Center by guardians who say their loved ones suffered serious injuries because of improper care and a five-day cover-up.
On Wednesday, the brother of a 54-year-old mentally retarded and quadriplegic woman who suffered two broken legs filed a lawsuit against the state in Gage County District Court. Also Wednesday, the mother of a 24-year-old mentally retarded man with diabetes who she says nearly died because of negligence at the center filed a claim—often a precursor to a lawsuit—of $1.35 million against the state.
Both are represented by Bruce Mason, litigation director of Nebraska Advocacy Services, a group that gets federal dollars to stand up for disabled people. State officials declined to comment on the allegations.
The lawsuit and claim come on the heels of a claim filed against the state last week by the family of 18-year-old Olivia Manes. She died last month after receiving what state officials have acknowledged was inadequate care at the center after having a seizure.
Her family is seeking $1.75 million for Olivia Manes’ suffering and the pain her death caused. A state investigation revealed a bumbling response to Manes’ seizure in mid January and led the state’s chief medical officer to declare early this month that the center was too dangerous for “medically fragile” residents, 45 of whom have been transferred to hospitals.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday says that Michael Ellsworth’s 54-year-old sister, Debra Bauer, suffered two broken legs on Feb. 15, 2008 after she was dropped by staff.
Use of a mechanical lift was required to move Bauer, who had lived at the center since 1960 and can’t walk or talk, in and out of a wheelchair. But Ellsworth said it’s not clear exactly how she was dropped because state officials and staff at the center have refused to talk to him about the incident.
Ellsworth said he learned what happened through investigation reports obtained by Nebraska Advocacy Services.
“What’s tragic about the whole thing is that the individuals responsible knew what happened and they covered it up,” said Ellsworth, of Bellevue. He moved his sister out of the center and into an Omaha long-term care facility after the incident. “They hid it from family and officials.”
Despite signs that Bauer’s legs were broken, Ellsworth alleges in the lawsuit, staff waited five days before reporting the incident. X-rays of her legs weren’t performed until Feb. 20 at a hospital, the lawsuit says, and a day later she underwent surgery.
Screws had to be used to fix the fractures inn her legs and a 9-inch plate was inserted in one of her legs. Bauer, the lawsuit says, experienced five days of excruciating pain from the undiagnosed leg fractures because of the negligence.
Ellsworth and officials with Nebraska Advocacy Services say investigatory reports show it is clear that staff knew Bauer was in severe pain but waited days to report the incident.
Ellsworth is seeking an unspecified amount of damages from the state for medical expenses, pain and anguish suffered by his sister and other alleged consequences of her care at the center.
“The thing that bothers me the most is that residents at Beatrice have not been treated like human beings,” Ellsworth said.
In addition to the state’s failure to properly train and supervise staff, Ellsworth says in the lawsuit that the incident revealed a failure to adopt policies and procedures requiring all employees to immediately report all falls and provide prompt care when a resident is injured.
Hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and neglect have been reported at the center over the last few years, it has repeatedly run afoul of federal standards, and is expected to lose about $29 million in annual, federal funding. The center is home to about 200 people with a range of mental disabilities and most are mentally retarded.
The second action filed against the state on Wednesday is from Sandy Ham of Lincoln.
She alleges that staff at the center twice ignored a diagnosis that her son Ian Ham, who is mentally retarded and has diabetes, had a swallowing disorder and did not inform her of the disorder. She says they instead maintained that he had behavioral problems and his health deteriorated because he was not treated for the swallowing disorder.
A gastric feeding tube was eventually inserted into her son, but she alleges that it was improperly reinserted at an outside hospital and that after returning to the Beatrice center, the contents of the tube went into her son’s perineum.
Ham says he was in the hospital for two weeks with pneumonia, collapsed lungs and an infection.
“They told me he could die,” Sandy Ham said.
Her son was one of the 45 “medically fragile” people moved out of the center, a decision Ham supports.
Nebraska Advocacy Services filed her claim against the state with the State Claims Board, the same group that received Manes’ claim.
The board is the first stop for residents seeking compensation from the state for causing injury, death and other civil wrongs. The board’s rejection of claims, or inaction, clears the way for lawsuits to be filed in district courts.
That was the case with Ellsworth, who filed a claim on behalf of Bauer in March 2008 that the board did not act on, prompting the lawsuit to be filed in Gage County District Court.
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