From the Raleigh News and Observer (3/13/09): Four employees at a state home in Goldsboro for people with severe developmental disabilities have been placed on leave following the death of a resident Wednesday night.
Brad Deen, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, refused Thursday to provide any details of why the resident at the O’Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center died, citing the agency’s interpretation of medical privacy rules.
Officers from the DHHS-run police department at neighboring Cherry Hospital are investigating whether criminal charges are appropriate against the employees.
SBI agents working for the state Attorney General’s Office are also investigating the death, Deen said.
“In keeping with our zero-tolerance policy, any employee whose actions contributed to the death of this patient will be held accountable,” DHHS secretary Lanier Cansler said Thursday in a written statement. “We will also be reviewing our policies to determine if changes are warranted.”
Abuse is not expected in the case, Deen said, but the investigations will center on whether the employees neglected the resident and whether that neglect contributed to the death.
“There was something that happened where there may have been culpability, and we’re trying to iron that out right now,” Deen said.
The death has been classified as “unexpected” — the term applied when death was not anticipated as a result of the resident’s medical condition.
An autopsy on the resident’s body was performed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill to determine the cause of death. The pathologist’s report is expected to be complete in about 90 days.
“We’re not going to say anything else until the medical examiner makes its determination,” Deen said.
The state department also refused a public records request from The News & Observer to immediately provide the agency’s internal death report, which would cite the cause of death suspected by the facility’s staff.
In cases where abuse or neglect is suspected, state law requires DHHS to provide a copy of the two-page death report to the advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina.
Susan Pollitt, a lawyer with Disability Rights, said the group was told that the report in the O’Berry case is being withheld at the order of Jim Osberg, the director of the state system of mental hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled.
By Michael Biesecker, N&O Staff Writer