Glenwood resident dies; Oskaloosa mom plans to sue
An Oskaloosa woman believes her only son died as the result of negligence at a state-run home for the disabled.
Timothy N. Alexander, 26, died Saturday after being found unresponsive in his room at the Glenwood Resource Center, where he had lived for five years.
His mother, Georgette Alexander, works for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which runs Glenwood. She said Tuesday that she was planning a wrongful-death lawsuit against her employer.
"I just can't believe they did this to my son," she said. "After the last death they had there, I remember telling my co-workers, 'They had better hope and pray that never happens to my son.' "
The newly reported death was the 11th at Glenwood this year, and it came at a time when the facility was already under investigation for what advocates claim is an unusually high number of deaths. In April, the state's own inspectors cited Glenwood for negligent care that allegedly contributed to one of those deaths. Last month, the home was fined $27,500 for repeatedly failing to give oxygen to a resident with respiratory problems.
Department of Human Services officials declined to comment, other than to confirm the death of a 26-year-old resident of the home.
Georgette Alexander said her son's death stemmed from an incident last Wednesday night when he choked on food while eating dinner at Glenwood. She said her son suffered a seizure, was taken to a hospital and then was taken back to Glenwood later that night.
On Thursday morning, she said, her husband called Glenwood to check on their son's condition.
"My husband called at 10:15, and they said, 'Well, he got up and had a little bit of breakfast and took his medicine and said he was going to go lie back down.' And they said, 'Well, we'll go get him.' And my husband said, 'No, I just want to make sure he's all right.' They said, 'No, that's OK.' Well, when the staff took the phone back there for Tim to talk to his dad, they found him. He wasn't breathing. There was no heartbeat."
Alexander said the staff administered CPR and her son was rushed to a local hospital. On Saturday, he remained unresponsive, his brain was swelling and he couldn't breathe on his own. On a doctor's advice, the family decided to disconnect the life-support machinery.
Alexander said that while the Glenwood staff members couldn't be expected to prevent her son's seizures, they should have followed the usual practice of placing him under observation in the facility's infirmary after he returned from the hospital. Instead, she said, her son was taken to the house he shared with other residents on the Glenwood campus.
"A staff person told me that was because they had their hands full over at the infirmary," Alexander said. "Had they kept him at the infirmary like they should have, no matter what the circumstances were, there would have been somebody there with him - somebody who could have revived him."
In November 2007, U.S. Department of Justice officials wrote to the Iowa attorney general to say that Glenwood had serious deficiencies in resident care. The most immediate concern was related to the home's overall clinical care and the staff's failure to minimize the residents' risk of choking while eating.
The seriousness of those problems was underscored by "two recent deaths" at Glenwood, the Justice Department said at that time.
Alexander said her son was "full of life" and loved being with people and telling jokes.
"He wasn't a medically fragile person and, you know, he had at least 50 good years left in him," she said.