Beatrice center woes mount

BY MARTHA STODDARD
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN - Until the phone rang Feb. 20, Michael Ellsworth of Bellevue counted himself among the family members who believed the Beatrice State Developmental Center was giving good care to their disabled relatives.

That call and what he has discovered since shattered his confidence in the state institution.

Ellsworth filed a $1.85 million claim Wednesday on behalf of his sister, Debra Bauer, who suffered two broken legs in unexplained circumstances and who allegedly got no treatment for three to five days.

"It just crushed me. It just destroyed me," Ellsworth said. "You place your trust in a state institution that you believe is going to be a safe place. I just feel like I let her down to leave her there."

The filing was expected to be the first of several claims against the state on behalf of residents who were injured, abused or neglected at the troubled Beatrice center.

The facility also is facing the potential loss of $28.6 million in federal funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for failing to meet care standards and a possible lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department alleging violations of residents' civil rights.

Nebraska officials responded with a five-point action plan that includes bringing in temporary workers and moving one of every three center residents into the community or other appropriate settings by the end of the year.

"Our most important concern is for the safety and quality of life for our clients," said John Wyvill, developmental disabilities director for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

The Beatrice center now serves 306 people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities, many of whom have additional physical disabilities or mental health problems.

Ellsworth said he filed the claim out of concern for his sister, who has lived at the Beatrice center for 48 of her 53 years, and for the other people at the center. Bauer is currently recovering at an Omaha-area nursing home.

According to the claim, Bauer suffered two broken legs sometime after Feb. 16. Bauer, who cannot speak, walk or use her arms, was not taken to the hospital until Feb. 20.

Ellsworth said Beatrice officials could not tell him the cause of the injuries, but the surgeon who operated on Bauer told him they appeared to be from a fall. That means someone else had to be involved, he said.

According to the claim, other residents in Bauer's living unit who use wheelchairs have suffered fractures or been dropped by staff members failing to properly use a mechanical lift or not using the lift at all.

An HHS spokeswoman said department officials have not reviewed the claim and could not comment.

Ellsworth and Bauer are represented by Bruce Mason, litigation director for Nebraska Advocacy Services, a private nonprofit agency charged under federal law with protecting and advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in Nebraska.

That agency issued a scathing report in December about conditions at the Beatrice center. Among other findings, the report cited 86 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect from January through October of last year, including 22 broken bones.

Mason criticized the state's five-point plan as "too little, too late." He said it represents a patchwork approach to addressing the center's problems rather than a realistic plan.

But other advocates for community-based services said the state's plan has the potential to improve the situation at Beatrice and to give residents the chance to be more integrated into the rest of society.

Deborah Weston, executive director of Arc of Nebraska, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, and others with that group have called on Nebraska for years to move toward closing the Beatrice center. They have been opposed by family members of Beatrice residents, who say the institution offers the best place for their relatives.

Those families, along with the union representing Beatrice center employees, now are raising concerns about whether the state plan would lead to the dumping of center residents.

Joan O'Meara, president of the Beatrice State Developmental Center Family and Friends Association, said she is getting numerous calls from frightened families.

They are especially worried about the June 30 and Dec. 31 deadlines and about how people will be chosen to make the transition. In recent years, the state has not moved people if parents or guardians objected.

"They're all worried. No one wants to move their kids," O'Meara said. "It was hard to give our child away the first time, and now they're asking us to do it again. We're going from the known to the unknown."



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