D.C. SUED IN DEATHS OF PATIENTS (Washington Post)
Lawsuit filed on behalf of former Forest Haven residents.
This article was originally published on August 5, 1992 in the Washington Post.
By Murray Waas
August 5, 1992
The parents of five former residents of the District's now-closed facility for the mentally retarded said in a lawsuit yesterday that incompetent medical care and behavior "beyond the bounds of professional and human decency" led to their children's deaths.
The suit against the District alleges that the five deaths at Forest Haven were related to aspiration pneumonia, in which food seeps into the lungs and causes potentially fatal choking, vomiting or asphyxiation. The staff caused the condition by feeding the residents lying down, according to the suit, and then failed to treat them.
The parents' assertions parallel allegations made by the U.S. Department of Justice as it fought to close Forest Haven and protect its residents in the meantime. In 1989 and 1990, the Department submitted reports from medical experts who said that substandard medical care contributed to at least eight deaths at the facility.
A class action suit to close the Laurel facility was filed in 1976, and the city agreed two years later to close its doors. But it was October 1991 before all 1,300 Forest Haven residents were resettled into group houses and a nursing home.
Yesterday's suit involves five residents who died between August 1989 and April 1991, when only about 200 residents remained at Forest Haven. The five ranged in age from 22 to 35.
The suit also claims that the five residents suffered "severe emotional distress" and physical discomfort. It alleges, for example, that some of the residents were kept in cribs and restraints for years, lying in soiled diapers on filthy sheets in rooms that smelled of urine.
Larry Brown, a spokesman for the D.C. Department of Human Services, said the agency had not seen the suit and could not comment on it.
"We are concerned about the welfare of all the citizens we serve," Brown said. "It is our practice to provide the best possible care."
In earlier suits involving Forest Haven, the city has denied negligence, saying that residents who died there were seriously ill and could not be saved.
The suit, filed by Steptoe & Johnson, outlines each of the five deaths and refers to "recurring and protracted illnesses," which it says were improperly treated.
It alleges that Walter Tolson, 34, was tied to a wheelchair without foot rests, which caused his feet to swell. Despite longstanding problems with vomiting, Tolson was fed lying down, according to the suit, and died malnourished at only 66 pounds.
The suit says that on Dec. 6, 1989, Tolson was having difficulty breathing, and that the attending physician prescribed treatment by phone without seeing him. It alleges that Tolson was not examined until 22 hours later, when he was lethargic, coughing and suffering a seizure.
About a month later, the suit says, "Tolson choked on regurgitated material while confined to a room apparently unattended by Forest Haven personnel, causing his death."
Besides the city, defendants named in the suit include officials at D.C. General Hospital, which was implicated in one death, and six District officials. One of the five counts alleges that the residents' civil rights were violated, and other counts assert negligence and emotional distress.
The suit seeks a total of $10 million in damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress and $10 million in punitive damages.
To collect punitive damages from a municipality, lawyers must prove "extraordinary circumstances." Patrick M. Regan, a past president of the D.C. Trial Lawyers Association, said he is not aware of any recent case in which punitive damages were upheld against the District.
In November, the city settled a case in which a 16-year-old boy hanged himself at a D.C. juvenile detention center.
The settlement was reached after a judge said she would decide after hearing the evidence whether to allow the jury to consider punitive damages against the city.