The stress of being moved from their decades-long home didn't contribute to the deaths of former residents of a center for the developmentally disabled, the state's chief medical officer said Wednesd
NATE JENKINS / The Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:00 am
The stress of being moved from their decades-long home didn't contribute to the deaths of former residents of a center for the developmentally disabled, the state's chief medical officer said Wednesday.
But some guardians aren't convinced.
"I think you can't make someone who has the mental capacity of a 3-year-old or 4-year-old suddenly move to a place they're not familiar with and expect them to thrive. It's totally illogical and very painful," said Claudie Sires of Omaha.
Sires' 66-year-old cousin, Claudia Wright, on Sunday became the fifth person to die since she and 46 other residents were moved out of the Beatrice State Developmental Center in early February.
Wright was the second person to die in the last week.
Guardians of those moved have said the emergency action made their loved ones turn quiet and even despondent, appearing to lead to the deterioration of their physical health and eventual deaths.
Dr. Joann Schaefer, Nebraska's chief medical officer, ordered the 47 residents she described as "medically fragile" out of BSDC following the death of 18-year-old Olivia Manes in January.
State officials have acknowledged Manes received inadequate care at the center.
The center, home to about 180 people, has repeatedly run afoul of federal regulators. It has faced hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and neglect in recent years and stands to lose $29 million in annual funding. An outside expert reviewing the center as part of a state settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice said progress is being made to improve the center.
Schaefer has said the 47 people she ordered moved out of BSDC were at risk of possibly dying or suffering serious harm if they stayed. And she said in a Wednesday e-mail she understands guardians may be concerned stress may have contributed to the deaths since the move, but "knowing the situations and details involved, I do not believe that is true."
She added she does not regret the decision to move people out of the center.
"While it is sad that this drastic of an action had to be taken, I … feel very comfortable that I did the right thing and that any medical doctor in my position would have done the same thing," she wrote.
Sires said her cousin received excellent care at the nursing home in Scribner where she was moved, but that Wright was surrounded by people who didn't share her mental retardation condition. Sires said Wright seemed to be "looking for people that she knew" and turned quiet.
Sires hadn't yet been told a cause of death Wednesday.
It is unclear whether the mortality rate among the group moved from the center is higher or lower compared to medically fragile people at the center in years before the move.
Schaefer said the medically fragile "were at higher risk regardless of where they were placed."
There were seven deaths among the entire population of BSDC residents last year. There were 13 deaths in 2007.
Part of the state's settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice included the formation of a Mortality Review Committee to look into circumstances that may have led to deaths. But the committee is only reviewing deaths of people who were residents at the time they died, not the medically fragile who were moved out.
State officials say two nurses in the state's Division of Public Health will review how the conditions of the medically fragile were managed once they left BSDC, among other things.