Andrew McClain - 1998

11-year-old Andrew McClain died because the employees at the Elmcrest Psychiatric Hospital tried to restrain him. It proved to be a deathly decision. He was basically crushed to death because the employees were poorly trained to do their job. Maybe profit mattered more than the safety of the patients. We can not know.

All we know is that a family lost their boy, which should not have been the case.

When you commit your child to the hospital, you believe that your child is safe. This case proves otherwise. Please check up on your child in any residential setting.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Andrew's Last Hours (The Hartford Courant)
• A Child Dies in State's Custody (The New York Times)
• Connecticut Examines Use of Restraint Holds on Psychiatric Patients After Death of Boy, 11 (The New York Times)
• Hospital and Employee Are Cited in Death of Boy (The New York Times)

Tristan Sovern - 1998

16-year-old Tristan Sovern died because the employees at the Charter Behavioral Health Systems tried to restrain him. Suffering from a cold it did not become easier for him to catch his breath when the employees placed bed sheet and towel over his mouth and nose. The employees were poorly trained and it saved them from criminal conviction. They simply did not know better.

So no training, equal license to kill.

Why the state did not intervene and close the hospital due to concerns of the safety of the patients is strange. No hospital should be able to operate without training their employees. The death of the boy shows that so clearly.

They managed to get away with this bad management and the family of the boy was left behind suffering from the memory of a boy who should have been given a chance to life and fulfill his destiny.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Unsafe Haven: FAQ (CBS News)
• A mother's anguish - and a President's profits (The Guardian)
• Hospital personnel face prison for death of "restrained" patient (Google News-group)
• CHARTER AIDE DESCRIBES DEATH\ PRIOR TROUBLE WITH PATIENT IS RECOUNTED (News & Record - Greensboro)
• DA ENDS PROBE OF CHARTER PATIENT'S DEATH\ NO FURTHER CHARGES WILL BE FILED IN THE INVESTIGATION INTO TRISTAN SOVERN'S DEATH AT A GREENSBORO PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY. (News & Record - Greensboro)

Laura Hanson - 1998

The 17 year old Laura Hanson choked to her death.

After Hanson got into a fight with her roommate, two employees at a West Palm Beach mental health center entered her room and placed her in a hold. Within 10 minutes, she was limp and unconscious. That evening, she was dead.

Her deaths was one of two deaths at the same center.

It remains unclear based on the articles whether some were held responsible for her death. Restraints back in the late 1999's claimed the lives of many teenagers. All she suffered from was Schizophrenia and it became a deadly illness due to poor instructions, lack of oversight and legislation. It was a real tragedy.

May she find peace where she is now.

Sources:

• Use Of Restraints Can Turn Deadly (SunSentinel)
• Legislators Take Aim At Restraint (Hartford Currant)

Chad Andrew Franza - 1998

16 year old Chad Andrew Franza was found hanging in his cell at the olk County Juvenile Boot Camp.

He was sent there for minor arrests and became depressed according to his family.

The staff didn't notice. Their job was just to keep him locked up.

Sad that this young man didn't get a chance to better himself and grow up by having been sentenced to community service instead right away when he broke the law the first time, so he could have re-thinked the path he was on before it was too late.

May he rest in peace.


Sources:

• Teen assigned to juvenile boot camp found in apparent suicide (Associated Press)
• Family Says Teen Was Unhappy at Boot Camp (Lakeland Ledger)

Mark Soares - 1998

When 16 year old Mark Soares according to staff was acting out they restrained him manually. He told them he couldn't breathe but they didn't listen. When he became unreponsive it was too late. He had been held in a headlock which had damaged an artery.

In inquest was held but the instructions to the staff was so weak so they hadn't voilated any protocol. The facility has used a lot of time to prevent new deaths and have revised their protocols.

Unfortunately it was too late for Mark Soares.

May he rest in peace.



Sources:

• DA office probe to determine if criminal conduct involved. (Boston Herald)
• Lessons Unheeded, Lives Lost (Hartford Currant)

Dustin E. Phelps - 1998

14 year old Dustin E. Phelps died when the owner of a Lancaster Foster Home strapped him into a blanket and a mattress held together with straps. He was left unattended for 4 hours.

It remains unclear if there ever was an investigation into this tragedy or the system just forgot him.

14 years is not alot to be allowed to live.

May he rest in peace.

Sources:

• THE SILENT DEATH OF AMERICA’S CHILDREN (Presented to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, Los Angeles, 13 November, 2002)
• Children in treatment

Angela Miller (2001) and Ashley Shaddox (1998)

March 1 is not the best day to be resident at Echo Glen Children's Center. On the exact same date in 1998 and 2001 two different girls hanged themselves.

1998

14 year Ashley Shaddox had a troubled life. Being raped at age 11 and even being pregnant at that age is an ordeal no child should endure. In some communities it is shameful to be the victim and slowly she was marginalized into a subculture where she hung out with the wrong kind of people.

When some of the youth in this group committed an armed robbery she was left with poor legal support and in a justice system where you have to buy legal protection she had no chance and was sentenced to serve her time at Echo Glen Children's Center. While she was serving her sentence it became clear that she was depressed.

Unfortunately none seem to bother and on March 1 1998 she committed suicide by hanging.

2001

17 year old Angela Miller took her own life rather suddenly to the surprise of her relatives. The family believed that she was safe at the facility.

She was suffering from depression and as a cry for help she had acted out. Instead of recognizing an illness the court system sentenced her for residential-burglary. It did carry a 9 month punishment. She was first send to Naselle Youth Camp where they were not trained to handled sucidial and depressed youth. She tried to kill herself and was transferred to Echo Glen Children's Center. As it turned out they were not trained to deal with this type of clients also.

As result of the state's neglect this young girl died.

Is there a lesson somewhere

Yes. Someone should have learned that depression carries a risk of suicide. Unfortunately these two deaths are not the only one who have taken place at Echo Glen Children's Center. You may search this blog later and a text of the third death we have learned off.

May both girls rest in peace.


Sources:

• An eerie echo (Seattke Weekly)
• Family Files Tort Claim Over Girl's SuicideEugene Register-Guard - March 8, 1998
• Victims in 1990s (Fornits Wiki)
• Victims 2000-2004 (Fornits Wiki)

Edith Campos - 1998

For some odd reason the treatment facility named Desert Hills had a rule which forbid residents to have photos of their family. 15 year old Edith Campos missed her family which must be considered rather naturally and when the staff removed her photo she protested.

The staff did choose to restrain her and in the process she died.

It was a senseless death and a pure tragedy for her family.

Hopefully we will never see at facility with rules aimed to built walls between a child in treatment and his or hers family.

May she rest in peace:

Source

• Court suggests removing youths at Desert Hills (By Rhonda Bodfield, The Arizona Daily Star, March 7, 1998)
• 3 agencies rule today on Desert Hills youth shifts (By Rhonda Bodfield, The Arizona Daily Star, March 6, 1998)
• Victims in the 1990's (Fornits Wiki)

Kelly Young - 1998

17 year old Kelly Young became upset after af telephone conversation with her grand mother. We don't know what led to her becoming upset, but we do know that the staff did choose to confront her instead of leading the other residents away until she would have calmed down.

The confrontation resulted in her death.

Afterwards a lot of regulations were put in place. However the numbers don't lie. There have been deaths as result of the use of restraints since.

There is no information concerning the reason for the placement of Kelly Young in such a facility. Would there have been options which could have kept her home and receive treatment from home?

The answers seem to remain unanswered.

May she rest in peace.


Sources:

• PART 5 -- KELLY YOUNG'S DEATH AND ITS AFTERMATH AT BRISBANE (The Brisbane Report, Nancy D. Feldman, J.D. for New Jersey Protection and Advocacy, Inc.)
• Victims in the 1990's (Fornits Wiki)

Brandon Hoffman - 1998

If anyone toured the now abandoned "Mount Bachelor Academy" located in a remote area near the small town of Prineville no sign of the tragedy is visible today.

Back in 1989 a young man decided that he could bare no further the banishment from his family, the isolation from peers and close friends back home and ended his life.

It is hard to understand what kind of pressure which can force a people so far out that they cannot find a path for a continuation of their lives.

But young Mr. Hoffman was forced that far out and he didn't make it back.

Had it been a single incident it may have been only a tragedy. But others did choose the same solution.

May his death result in more care and more thinking into what could happen before any parent decide to remove a child from the loving and caring environment the child experience at home.

May he rest in peace

Sources:

• The datasheet of the facility on Fornits Wiki
• Crook County Sheriff Case # 982737
• Sad- Who Have We Lost?

Mark Draheim - 1998

The social services are out to protect children in need.

Or at least that is what we are supposed to believe. Back in the late 1990's they removed Mark Draheim from his home because they alleged that his mother did a poor job bringing him up. Now the state believed that they would be able to do a better job.

Did they then?

First there is the question of the alleged sexual assault on him. A case never fully investigated because he conveniently died before the investigation was finished.

Then there is the restraint job the counselors made which caused him to die - from anoxia under the pressure from several adults. How long did it take for him to basically strangle to death? One minute, two minutes or even more?

Just try to imagine how it must be knowing that every time you breathe out you will know that you will not be able to take new air in. You know that you are dying and while a lot of people are standing around you, they are not willing to save you.

No the state did not do a good job trying to do a better job than his mother did. At the funeral his mother stated that she wanted to join him in the next world. We don't know if she it with her son now.

It is common knowledge that kids in the system are much more exposed to the risk of being sexual molested. Still it continues to happen every single month. In a small country like Denmark with only 5 millions people and 14.000 kids in the system, it happens every 14 day. According to the minister of social services in Denmark the staff are not educated to deal with rape victims. In some cases the victims are even forced to continue to live next door with the person who did evil with them.

Awful, but it is the system.

To all parents out there only one advice can be given. Keep quiet about your problems at home. Otherwise your children could end up in the system and like young Mr. Draheim they might not return home alive.

May he rest in peace.

Sources:

• Kidspeace Rape Investigation Began Before Boy's Death Kidspeace Rape Inquiry Began Before Death State Police Confirm They Were Looking Into Report 14-year-old Mark Draheim Was Assaulted. He Died Friday (By DAVID WASHBURN And CHRISTINE SCHIAVO, The Morning Call, December 17, 1998)
• Holiday Gift Shrouds Kidspeace Client * Mark Draheim, Who Died After Being Restrained At N.whitehall Facility, Is Buried (by Keith Herbert and Christine Schiavo, The Morning Call, December 18, 1998)