BRENDAN BLUM: A DEATH IN UTAH

2007-10-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

OP/ED
http://www.wasatchwatcher.com

Sat Oct 13, 2007 at 18:24:10 PM MDT

On June 28th Brendan Blum died a horrible, painful death, alone in his room at Youth Care of Utah in Draper. He was only 14 years old, and lived with high-functioning autism. His bowel had twisted and cut off the blood flow to his small intestine.

Despite his pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, the counselors treated him with over the counter medicine and sent him to bed without notifying the on-call nurse, as was company policy. The state Human Services Office of Licensing came down hard on the facility with ... probation.

From SL Tribune...

Utah licensers placed Youth Care of Utah on probation, requiring the center to, among other requirements, retool employee training. Youth Care was not fined and it is free to accept new clients, though no more than five every 30 days.

The disciplinary action was reached as part of a settlement between the facility and lawyers for the state Human Services Office of Licensing, which regulates Utah's teen-help industry.
Licensing director Ken Stettler said he hopes Friday's action shows the state takes its watchdog role seriously. It comes a day after criminal neglect charges were filed against two former Youth Care counselors in connection with Brendan's June 28 death.

The Human Services Office of Licensing must have some pretty piss-poor lawyers if that's the best they could do. Of course it's hard to go up against a company with such deep pockets. Did I mention Youth Care of Utah is run by Aspen Education, which is owned by CRC Health Group, which is owned by Bain Capital, which we all know was founded by our favorite guy Mitt Romney? Like I said, deep pockets.

Anyway, this isn't the first time Aspen has had problems with children dying at their facilities. There were two suicides, one in July 2004 at Island View Academy in Syracuse, and another in April this year at Aspen Achievement Academy in Loa. Now suicides aren't necessarily the fault of the institution, but it does point to some potentially severe problems with these programs. The US Government Accountability Office released a draft report last week in which they examined 10 fatalities at wilderness programs since 1990.

I highly recommend you watch the House Education and Labor Committee hearings on this report here. Warning... It will get you very pissed off. Chairman Miller describes the refusal of the Justice Department to investigate these programs and that he finally asked the GOA to review them. If you want to get a deeper feel for the brutal neglect involved in these cases, download the PDF of the entire report. It has a very detailed rundown on each one of the tragic deaths.

Of the ten fatalities investigated, five occurred here in Utah. Here's a summary of those five events from the Tribune.

Michelle Sutton, 15, of California, died May 9, 1990. Sutton was enrolled in Summit Quest of St. George. She died from altitude sickness, dehydration and heat exhaustion while hiking south of St. George on the Arizona Strip on her sixth day in the program. No criminal charges were brought, but her parents filed a federal lawsuit against the program, a group of physicians and a private psychologist. Summit Quest settled the case in 1992 for what was left of the company's insurance policy -- $345,000 -- and a judge dismissed the doctors and the psychologist from the suit.

Kristen Chase, 16, of Florida, died June 27, 1990. Chase was enrolled in the Challenger Foundation program of Escalante. Three days after arriving, she died of heatstroke on a hike in Kane County. Program owner Stephen Cartisano was charged with negligent homicide in her death and counts of child abuse for the treatment of other students. A jury acquitted him, but state officials determined the charges warranted placing his name on a registry of those banned from working with child-treatment programs in Utah. Chase's divorced parents filed a federal lawsuit against Challenger and Cartisano that was settled in 1994 for $260,000 in insurance money. Her mother received 70 percent of the settlement amount, the father 30 percent, and $91,000 went to attorneys' fees.

Aaron Bacon, 16, of Arizona, died March 31, 1994. Bacon was enrolled in North Star Expeditions of Escalante. He was three weeks into a 63-day wilderness trek on the Hole-in-the-Rock trail in Garfield County, 15 miles southeast of Escalante, when he died of peritonitis and a perforated ulcer. Eight North Star staff members were charged with felony neglect and abuse of a disabled child. A jury convicted supervising counselor Craig Fisher and a judge ordered him to spend one year in the Garfield County jail. Five others, including program co-owners Bill Henry and Lance Jaggar, pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide, with a judge suspending any jail time and ordering community service and restitution. A seventh counselor pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted abuse of a disabled child and also received a sentence of probation and community service. The eighth employee signed a diversion agreement that dismissed the case against him in return for nine months' good behavior. The state filed to void the license of North Star Expeditions and the program shut down before an administrative hearing was held.

Katie Lank, 16, of Virginia, died Jan. 13, 2002. Lank was enrolled in Redrock Ranch Academy of St. George. She was hiking about 25 miles from Gunlock Reservoir in Washington County on Christmas Day in 2001, lost her footing in an area called the "naming caves," and fell about 70 feet into a crevasse. She died three weeks later at a Las Vegas hospital. No criminal charges were brought. Her parents filed a federal lawsuit against the program, director Abe Dalley and field director Clint Dalley, that settled for a confidential amount earlier this year. The state filed to void the company's license but stopped short by agreeing to suspend the program if new leaders were hired and new training was completed. The program, however, closed on its own a week before the suspension was to begin.

Ian August, 14, of Texas, died July 13, 2002. August was enrolled in Skyline Journey of Nephi. He was on a hike about 70 miles west of Delta when he could not hike any farther. He died of hyperthermia. Program supervisor Mark Wardle and counselor Leigh Hale were charged with child abuse homicide. The charges against Hale were dropped after she testified for prosecutors, and a judge found there was not enough evidence against Wardle to take the case to trial. The state has filed to remove Skyline Journey's license, and an administrative judge is set to hear the case Aug. 18. The program is still in operation [Note: The program is now known as "Distant Drums." - Barbe Stamps, Teen Advocates USA]

You may have noticed a pattern there. Dismissed charges, lesser charges, probation, community service, small settlements, still in operation, on and on and on. In the GOA report there is an even more disturbing trend. Almost every one of these cases ends with the people in charge of these deadly programs starting new programs just like them later on.

I truly hope that the recent report and hearings on these tragic deaths will be the catalyst for changing the oversight of these programs and that we can stop these horrible abuses from happening again.

Our state needs to CRACK DOWN on these dangerous institutions and start real enforcement of child protection laws.

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For further information on these deaths and many others, please click here.

BRENDAN BLUM: A DEATH IN UTAH

2007-10-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Brendan Blum, 14

Four recent Utah deaths in treatment programs
Facility put on probation, but free to take new clients

By Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune

A residential youth treatment center was cited on Friday for providing inadequate medical care to Brendan James Blum, a 14-year-old California boy who died at its Draper facility.

Utah licensers placed Youth Care of Utah on probation, requiring the center to, among other requirements, retool employee training. Youth Care was not fined and it is free to accept new clients, though no more than five every 30 days.

The disciplinary action was reached as part of a settlement between the facility and lawyers for the state Human Services Office of Licensing, which regulates Utah's teen-help industry. Licensing director Ken Stettler said he hopes Friday's action shows the state takes its watchdog role seriously. It comes a day after criminal neglect charges were filed against two former Youth Care counselors in connection with Brendan's June 28 death.

It also coincides with a congressional probe into wilderness camps, which detailed thousands of cases of abuse nationwide since 1990. Of 10 deaths detailed in the federal report, five occurred in Utah.

The cases showed a pattern of lax government oversight and medical neglect, with counselors assuming the teens were making up their symptoms. Brendan Blum's mother, Dana Blum, fears the same issues may have played a role in her son's death. Blum said she "feels" for the employees at Youth Care, but said the facility should have been shut down, at least temporarily, and the owners held accountable. "Nothing will bring Brendan back," said Blum. "But the bottom line is that when a parent makes a difficult decision to place their child in a treatment program, the management and caretakers have a responsibility to ensure their safety. There shouldn't be any tolerance for the death of a child."

Sent to bed

Blum said the coroner described her son's death as "violent and painful." An autopsy concluded that he died after his bowel twisted, cutting off the blood supply to his small intestine. Brendan had vomited and been suffering diarrhea all night, according to police.

Instead of phoning the on-call nurse, per Youth Care's policy, counselors treated the boy with an over-the-counter medicine and sent him to bed, said Draper police Sgt. Gerry Allred. The next morning, Brendan, who had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, was found dead on his mattress.

The on-call nurse, who was later interviewed by police, said had she been consulted, she would have advised sending Brendan to the hospital, said Allred. The Utah State Medical Examiner said with medical intervention, the boy might have survived.

'Flu-like' symptoms

Youth Care officials maintain Brendan complained only of "flu-like" symptoms. "We extend our deepest sympathies to the family, and we continue to work closely with Utah officials and law enforcement. But we are confident a criminal prosecution will be found unwarranted," said Kristen Hayes, spokeswoman for Aspen Education Group, which owns Youth Care.

Based in Cerritos, Calif., Aspen is a division of the CRC Health Group, which runs boarding schools, outdoor education programs and weight-loss camps. For two decades, Youth Care has "delivered the highest standards of care," treating more than 1,300 children with behavioral and addiction problems last year, said Hayes. "All of Aspen's programs either meet or exceed state and national standards."

Aspen's record

Stettler confirmed Aspen's reputation, saying, "They've had a pretty spotless record." Three of four recent deaths at Utah treatment programs, however, happened at Aspen facilities: Blum's and two suicides; one in July 2004 at Island View Academy in Syracuse, and another in April at Aspen Achievement Academy of Loa. Stettler said the April suicide remains under investigation by law enforcement, but his own probe found Aspen wasn't at fault. The suicide at Island View happened before Aspen purchased the facility.

Blum said she thoroughly researched Youth Care and Aspen and was never told of the fatalities. "If nothing else, I would like to see them create a searchable database so parents can review deaths and complaints and not have to rely on the subjective descriptions of licensors," said Blum. The Web site of state licensors has contact information for facilities and shows whether their license is in good standing. But for more detailed information, parents need to phone regulators, who keep only paper files.

Sense of justice

Blum has "taken heat" for enrolling Brendan at Youth Care, but she says research shows behavioral modification programs can work for children with Asperger's.

"The real problem is there are not adequate community resources for kids with mental health problems," said Blum. Brendan was "erratic and unpredictable," and started acting aggressively at age 3, said Blum. "There were no consequences that were meaningful to him. You could take away privileges with friends, TV, or PlayStation. It didn't matter." Trips to her county mental health facility, school counselors and private therapists yielded no firm diagnosis. It wasn't until Brendan turned 13 and got swept up in the juvenile justice system that doctors at a local university diagnosed him with Asperger's.

"They said he was a textbook case of high-functioning autism and should have been diagnosed at age 8," said Blum.

Brendan had a "fine-tuned sense of justice. As his mother, I feel I need to make sure Youth Care is held accountable," said Blum. "These kids come from families that care about them. They're not just throwaway kids."

kstewart@sltrib.com