(Cross-posted from The COFAR Blogsite)
(Update: The Essex County District Attorney’s Office confirmed this morning (October 26) that they have opened a criminal investigation into this matter.)
As The Salem News reported this morning (October 25), an investigation by the Department of Developmental Services of the near death of a developmentally disabled man who aspirated on a piece of cake in his group home concluded that seven employees of the private provider that operated the residence were at fault in the matter.
The scathing report, which is dated September 8, also stated that a high-level employee of the Beverly-based provider, Bass River, Inc., removed key records from the facility concerning the matter and instructed staff not to cooperate with the DDS investigation. The findings have reportedly led to a criminal investigation by the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
The report was released by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, an independent agency, which investigates abuse and neglect of disabled individuals, and which had referred the case to DDS to investigate.
In August, we first reported that the staff of the group home had failed to react for nearly a week after the 29-year-old man, Yianni Baglaneas, reportedly aspirated on a piece of birthday cake in the residence on April 9. He was admitted to Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester in critical condition on April 15, and spent 11 days on a ventilator and a week in the Intensive Care Unit at Mass. General Hospital.
Aspirating or inhaling food into the lungs is a particularly serious danger among people with intellectual disabilities.
The DDS report did not identify the Bass River staff and other employees by name, but one of the individuals cited for abuse and neglect is believed to be the group home director, and another is the provider’s residential director who had authority over all of the agency’s group homes.
According to the report, the residential director acknowledged instructing staff of Yianni’s residence not to cooperate with the DDS investigation. The director also acknowledged removing records from the facility. The DDS investigator was subsequently unable to locate key records relating to Yianni’s care.
The DDS report stated that charges of abuse and mistreatment were substantiated in the case because the group home staff was negligent in failing to ensure that Yianni, who has Down Syndrome, regularly used a portable breathing mask at night called a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. Based on the input of a medical expert, the report concluded that the failure to use the machine was the cause of the aspiration that led to Yianni’s near-fatal respiratory failure.
A group home staff member did bring Yianni to a nurse practitioner at Cape Ann Medical Center in Gloucester on April 13, four days after he aspirated on the cake. The nurse practitioner diagnosed Yianni’s condition as bronchitis and an upper-respiratory infection. She performed a nebulizer treatment on him and prescribed cough syrup and Mucinex and Robitussin, which are over-the-counter decongestants.
According to the DDS report, the nurse practitioner stated to the staff member that Yianni should be brought back if his condition worsened, but that Yianni was never brought back to the medical center.
The DDS report charged that the group home staff, including the house director, committed mistreatment for failing to ensure that Yianni received the prescribed decongestant medications. And the report charged that the house director committed mistreatment in failing to follow up on recommendations of Yianni’s day program staff on April 14 that the staff seek medical attention for him because he appeared to be very ill.
Yianni’s mother, Anna Eves, said she believes criminal charges should be filed in the case in light of the DDS report. “It’s easy for them (the provider and key staff) to abuse and neglect people in the shadows, and this needs to be brought out into the light of day,” she wrote in an email. “I have felt physically ill since reading this report and reading the absolute disregard for my son’s well being. I cannot believe I ever trusted them at all.”
The DDS report did not address the issue of possible criminal charges, but did recommend that DDS re-evaluate the group home’s license to continue to operate.
Yianni was actually taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital on April 15 by his mother, who had not seen him during the previous week. She met him at a Special Olympics track practice in Gloucester to which he had been brought by a staff member of his group home.
According to the DDS report, Yianni’s Special Olympics track coach stated that Yianni appeared to be extremely lethargic, coughing and having difficulty breathing. Yet no one from the group home informed either the coach or Yianni’s mother that Yianni was seriously ill.
That group home staff member told the investigator that Yianni had been taken to the track practice because the group home was closing for the weekend, and it did not matter how sick he was.
We do not think Yianni’s case is unique in Massachusetts. This morning, I sent an email to the House chair and Senate vice chair of the Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities Committee, renewing a call we have made for a hearing into issues surrounding oversight of privatized human services. We have called for such hearings by the committee in the past, to no avail.
Alleged obstruction of the investigation
The DDS report described a number of instances of apparent obstruction of the DDS investigation of Yianni’s case.
According to the report, the Bass River residential director acknowledged to the investigator that she removed documents from the group home before the investigator could see them. She also acknowledged to the investigator in an initial statement that she had directed staff in the group home not to cooperate with the investigation. She later changed that statement, according to the report.
One witness told the investigator that he heard the residential director say to a staff member that “there will be consequences” if he cooperated with the investigation.
The report stated that records that could not be found or obtained by the investigator included daily and after-hours shift reports, emails from the time-frame in question, medication-related documents, Yianni’s ISP or care plan reports, and staffing schedules.
Failure to use the CPAP machine
According to the DDS report, Yianni has been diagnosed with sleep apnea, a potentially dangerous condition that is characterized by interrupted breathing during sleep.
The report concluded that seven employees of Bass River were negligent in failing to administer prescribed medication and to ensure that Yianni used his doctor-ordered CPAP machine, and that this failure directly contributed to his “serious, life-threatening medical condition.” That failure “more likely than not caused Yianni to aspirate while eating or sleeping, directly causing the aspiration pneumonia,” the report stated.
In a 180-day period between October 2016 and April, Yianni only used the CPAP mask on 36 days, or 20 percent of the time, according to the report.
The medical expert told the DDS investigator that without the nightly use of the CPAP machine, Yianni’s breathing would stop while he was sleeping, his heart rate would rise, and his red blood cell count would drop to levels that could be life threatening. In addition, this situation would have affected Yianni’s brain function negatively during his waking hours, causing him to have difficulty chewing and swallowing food and to aspirate on it.
The medical expert determined that Yianni could have either aspirated on food or fluids built up in his throat due to not using the CPAP machine. According to the expert, there is a direct link between sleep apnea and aspiration pneumonia when the apnea is not treated with a CPAP mask.
At least two Bass River employees stated that they were aware the staff were not making sure Yianni used the CPAP machine, but failed to do anything about it.
One staff member stated that on the night of April 9, when Yianni reportedly aspirated on the piece of cake, she had heard him wandering through the house, but she did not direct him back to bed. She also did not see to it that he was wearing the CPAP mask because she knew he would remove it, and therefore, she said, “‘I don’t bother.’”
The report stated that Yianni’s mother became aware that the CPAP machine was not being used based on an internal reporting chip in the machine. As a result, she emailed the Bass River residential director in March, requesting that the group staff make sure to use the machine each night.
The residential director at first told the DDS investigator that she was not aware that Yianni was not using the CPAP machine, but she did not deny that she received his mother’s email and acknowledged that she apparently neglected to follow up on the issue with the group home staff.
The house director acknowledged that she was contacted by an unidentified group home staff member that Yianni was not feeling well and was also told on April 14 by Yianni’s job coach that he appeared to be very ill that day, but she did not follow up with either of these notifications.
The house director also admitted that she falsely told Yianni’s mother on April 13 that Yianni was not ill, but only had allergies. She said that she misled Yianni’s mother about that because she had confused Yianni with another resident.
The report also stated that, according to the staff, the house director, was rarely present in the group home. She told the investigator that she was frequently out at the Bass River office and at meetings, but she was unable to list meetings that would have taken up that much of her time, according to the report.
The report stated that other troubling characteristics of the group home include the fact that none of the staff were scheduled to be awake at night even though Yianni, in particular, was known to wander around at night and to take food from the refrigerator.
In addition, staff who were trained in administering medications, stated that they were only part time and that it was not their responsibility to do so.
Today’s Salem News article noted that Yianni grew up in Rockport and “appeared to thrive and was well-known in the community.” The article stated that a 2005 story in The Gloucester Timesdescribed how he had obtained his first job, at Smith’s Hardware, “where he greeted customers with a firm handshake or high-five and sometimes, a hug.” He was later voted king of his high school prom.
As noted, Yianni’s case is not unique. Poor quality care is a serious problem throughout the DDS system, and Yianni’s case is further evidence of that. The Children and Families Committee needs to take the first step in bringing official scrutiny to this system and beginning to suggest needed improvements to it.
There are a number of glaring problems here, but low pay isn’t one of them. I cringe every time I hear the Arc or some other agency claim that the pay for these workers needs to increase. The reason the pay is low is that they have no qualifications. And yes, college level study should be part of the required training, and if the person can’t get into college, that should tell you something. There should be a certificate program run independently of DDS and its vendors. And then the workers need to be licensed. Maybe then will they take their jobs seriously and stop acting as if they have immunity for their deeds.
There are a number of glaring problems here, but low pay isn’t one of them. I cringe every time I hear the Arc or some other agency claim that the pay for these workers needs to increase. The reason the pay is low is that they have no qualifications. And yes, college level study should be part of the required training, and if the person can’t get into college, that should tell you something. There should be a certificate program run independently of DDS and its vendors. And then the workers need to be licensed. Maybe then will they take their jobs seriously and stop acting as if they have immunity for their deeds.
It tells you they come from a poor family, most often.
Nope, the reason is they have no political power. Look at the jerk we have in the White House and his daughter and son-in-law and the rest of the grifters. What qualifications do they have?
I am appalled by the casual comments by the group home provider staff offered during the investigation. The lack of oversight and the disregard for safety and follow through are neglectful at best and criminal at worst. As a guardian of a resident at a DDS facility, I am so appreciative of the respectful, competent care provided every day, on every shift. I urge guardians and family members to consider facility based care as an option for their intellectually disabled family members. So often, concomitant medical issues are present – as evidenced by Yianni’s situation – and untrained, unsupervised staff are ill equipped to handle these situations. Covering up, deleting records, and not following through sound like a provider culture of doing the minimum and putting clients at grave risk.