WEBVTT
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Good morning, good evening, good afternoon.
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This Dr.
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Ford, Pulse Check Wisconsin.
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I wanna thank you guys for joining us again.
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Thank you for joining us for a new season here.
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Uh, as always at Pulse Check Wisconsin, our goal is to make you the voice, right?
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To make, uh, give, give power back to the people and to make sure that we're telling the stories that you may have just only heard once or twice.
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And, you know, we have a story here today that, you know, could sh- should concern everyone, especially everyone who has a family member who has ever entrusted the care of a loved one to someone else.
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And, you know, there's some stories on the radio, some stories on WISM.
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We'll play a clip here in a little bit.
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But more so, you know, I, I feel like especially with news stories, we'll, we'll see it.
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It'll be a flash in the pan and then it's gone, right?
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But I wanna make sure that we give folks an opportunity to really tell the story, give us a little bit of the background, and hopefully we can all put our heads together to try to decide how we can prevent occurrences like this from happening in, in the future and to get justice where, where justice is due.
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And so before we get into it, I wanna play this quick clip just to give you guys some background here.
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26-year-old Jeremy McCarthy has cerebral palsy, can't walk or eat on his own, and is non-verbal, but his family says he can communicate in other ways.
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They say their happy son was changed by a horrific leg injury.
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It's been tough.
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It's tough as a parent to watch your child in pain.
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Jeremy's leg was broken in multiple places.
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It happened on May 29th at his group home in Menominee Falls.
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Colleen says she learned about it first from a surgeon who called her.
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This is a bad injury.
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This is akin to what we usually see with a car accident.
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She said she realized right away something wasn't right.
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Jeremy was found in his bed with a broken leg, but he can't put himself into bed if he falls.
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I think it was someone that was frustrated.
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It was definitely an abusive situation and it was, it, it was traumatic.
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Menominee
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So I'm gonna stop it right there because w- what I wanna do is highlight a couple things.
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So Jeremy McCarthy, again from the story, is a 26-year-old Wisconsin man with cerebral palsy.
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He's nonverbal, he cannot walk independently, and he relies on others for many aspects of his daily care.
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We see this often.
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Uh, you know, he unfortunately suffered a devastating leg injury while living in a group home and Menominee falls.
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And his family is now asking the important questions that we all should be asking.
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And that's, you know, what happened?
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Um, you know, they want accountability and perhaps most importantly, like we said, how do we prevent something like this from happening to another vulnerable person?
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So today we have Jeremy's mother, Colleen, uh, and Colleen's other son, Shane, who joins us today in Pulse Check, Wisconsin.
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Colleen and Shane, thank you guys so much for trusting us here with Jeremy's story.
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Thanks, Dr.
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Ford, for inviting us.
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We appreciate it.
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Absolutely.
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So, you know, before we, we talk about what happened, I feel like what's lost in a lot of this is, you know, who, who, who the individual is as a person.
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So I want people to know Jeremy as a person.
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Tell me a little bit about Jeremy.
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Jeremy came to us when he was 17 months old.
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He was an, in the foster care system, he was actually a child of shaking baby syndrome, and it's a really specific type of shaken baby called shaken impact.
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So when he was anywhere between one and three months old, he was probably thrown across a room multiple times.
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Very traumatic injury, three different skull fractures at different stages of healing.
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He was then failure to thrive, put in the foster care system.
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We were his fourth placement.
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Due to his siblings, he has four siblings that we already had at home, they brightened up his world.
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He responded to them, he learned how to communicate with them non-verbally, grew and thrived beyond what they thought he would be.
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But because of his shaking, he has cerebral palsy, a feeding tube, a shunt, a leg length discrepancy, so one leg was always longer than the other.
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He never learned how to walk or crawl, but he did jump around on his knees.
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So he, he did grow and develop.
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Everybody that meets Jeremy thinks he is just a happy, bubbly, um, boy.
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He's.
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W- what else could you wanna add?
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Yeah, I mean, I, I have, I have friends that are, you know, ready to go to bat for me on this whole thing.
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Like they've never met him, you know, but they love seeing the videos and the pictures and, you know, I have, you know, videos I've posted of him, you know, at, at my house and he's kinda bouncing around and he's just smiling, laughing hysterically and, you know, or he'll go and, um, you know, because of the cerebral palsy, he doesn't have great motor control, but he knows if he wants your attention, he'll grab, try to grab something and he'll get your attention pretty fast.
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And he thinks it's just funny because, you know, I'm not supposed to be doing this, but I'm gonna do it.
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Yeah.
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And like, and like a lot of special needs people, he knows a lot more than he can share, which has to be so hard because he can't tell us how he was hurt and that's what's so frustrating for us.
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So this happened when he was a baby and that's how he became in this situation where once he was an adult, I couldn't provide care for him and I couldn't expect the children, you know, my other siblings to care for him.
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That's why we went to a group home.
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I thought that people that worked in a group home were nurses aides or had medical certification and they really don't.
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There's not a system that really tracks them if there is an incident.
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There, there is.
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There is no required medical training in the state of Wisconsin in regards to having a CNA license or any nursing license or anything like that in order to work in a community-based residential facility.
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Those are all dictated and governed under Chapter 83.
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So what we're trying to do right now is look at some of this legislation and go,"What, where is the, the, the gaps that are missing here that's causing this, this kind of stuff to happen?"
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Yeah.
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And you bring up a good point, right?
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Like, you know, especially with, if there's no standardized medical care, right?
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Jeremy is relying on people for many aspects of his life.
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Colleen, as you spoke to, right?
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Like you said, he's got G-tube.
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Uh, he has, you know, inability to ambulate due to the discrepancy and hemiplegia, right?
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You know, what does it, what does it mean to place that level of trust in another person to care for your child?
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It's certainly not a decision you take lightly.
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I struggle with it on a daily basis, but I know that I'm not the only one that physically cannot handle an adult-sized person.
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I mean, I'm reaching retirement age.
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I can't take full.
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And I'm still working full-time.
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I can't take full-time care of someone the way that Jeremy needs.
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We also wanted him involved with other young adults, and once you're, once you transition out of school age, you don't have that many opportunities for that.
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And so we really trusted that someone was there with his best interest.
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If an accident happened, that's one thing.
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But to say Jeremy woke up this way in this care facility is unreasonable for us to believe that that's what happened.
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And if it was a fall or an accident, we might have more understanding, but to say that this just happened and no one knows why, and there's only one person overnight at the center.
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So, you know, taking care of six to eight adults.
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So the, the official story with that is he was found in, found in bed that way.
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Well, there are safety precautions and fall precautions in place.
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There's a mat on the ground throughout his entire room because he's, like my mom said, he sits on his knees and kind of bounces, you know, that's how he gets around.
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But, you know, he's not ambulatory, so he's confined to his wheelchair.
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So they didn't want him on the ground because then he would get into mischief because he would, you know, grab onto stuff because, you know, he can move his left arm and, um, so he was pretty much confined in his wheelchair for the entire time he was there.
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So then the other fall precaution that they had with that is his bed was about 16 inches off the ground with another mattress under his bed.
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So you're falling at that point, you're falling maybe 10, 12 inches to the ground that it, that sort of impact his knee gotta break a femur.
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Well, and then the other part is that it was an inside out injury and Jeremy's very contracted.
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He tends to bo go into a fetal position, especially when he's stressed.
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Yeah.
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So this injury happened from the inside of the thigh out with bruising from the inside out.
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So when you can think of someone that's contractured, if they fell, it would be an external in injury, not internal out.
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Right.
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Well, well, let me ask you all this.
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So, you know, I, I, I don't know who was told first, but could you guys take us back to that day in May when, when, when did you all first realize something had happened and something was wrong?
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So, um, I'm just gonna run through kind of company policy real quick of how the, what should have happened.
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So what should have happened is when he was first discovered, you have a call made to medical on call, um, to a manager on call, to a coordinator on call, who then will call director, and then throughout that entire change, somewhere along the line is notifying the guardian.
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All of that happens in the first 10 to 15 minutes of any sort of incident that requires EMS, police, et ce you know, et cetera.
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None of that happened.
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So they broke their own policy.
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The ambulance was called like 5:30 ish, a little before, in the morning.
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I was home, I would've answered my phone, always do.
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And I did not get a call until my voicemail started going off with an unknown number.
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And I didn't know Apple pushed out a spam thing, a filter.
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So it was sending.
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The surgeon was trying to call me.
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It was sending the surgeon to my voicemail, and I had three messages.
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They said,"We have your son here.
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He has a leg injury." And it was the surgeon calling to say they wanted to operate and they needed my consent.
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And he said,"This is bad.
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You need to get, you need to get down here." This was 9:30.
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So, you know, four hours later So
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she.
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They said it was like.
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Yeah, that was like a car accident, this injury looks like.
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Wow.
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Ever hear from anyone at the center until I got to the hospital, which was then probably by 10:30 or 11:00 by the time I got down there, there was an aide there from the center who wasn't at the home that morning.
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She came into the hospital.
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She is the first one from the facility that talked to me and she called someone at the facility.
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No one ever reached out on my, on their own.
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And, and, and, you know, to, to give the listeners a little bit of a background, right?
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So it takes a lot to go from being in your home to having a surgeon call you, right?
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There's a lot of steps in between that, right?
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There, there's EMS that gets involved.
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I have to see you or someone, you know, the emergency physician or emergency care practitioner has to see you first, and then a surgeon's called, and then the decision is made for surgery, right?
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So there, there, there are hours that, that, that are between what actually happened as well as, you know, when the surgeon decided to call and tell you how severe those injuries are.
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Colleen, as a, as a parent, what goes through your mind when you're hearing that your child's injuries are that severe?
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It, I mean, your, your heart kind of falls to your gut, and it was worse than.
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You have to stay calm.
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You have to get through, you have to get to that facility, right?
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So you're working on adrenaline.
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When I got there and I sat with him and I saw him contracted in pain, and he literally, for the first two days, held onto my hand so tight that I had, you know, dense and marks in my hand and my thumb was blue.
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He, he was in just a significant, significant amount of pain.
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This wasn't even just a standard break.
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It was called a displaced fracture or butterfly fracture.
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So the thigh bone was split, broken out, and a piece laid over the top of it.
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I think they showed one of the angles in the clip.
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Yeah.
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But that, and then watching him go through x-rays and watching the leg move when they tried to manipulate him for x-rays, it was just enough to make you nauseous because it was so unnatural and you know that the reason that it happened was not accidental.
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So, so after the surgeon called you, walk me through the course after that.
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Did, did he go to surgery?
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You know, how, how, what is his recovery like today?
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So, if I can say the name, we were at Froedtert.
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It was, by that time, it was a Friday.
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It was busy.
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There was people coming in and out.
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They put him slated on the schedule Friday afternoon, Friday night, and he kept getting pushed because of other emergencies that were coming into Froedtert because he was stable at that point in time.
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And then by that time, we had pain meds on board.
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His surgery didn't happen until Sunday afternoon.
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Um, and then he was in the hospital for almost two weeks.
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And so now is he, is he, you know, going through rehabilita- rehabilitation, you know, what, h- how is his pain now?
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How is he doing?
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So I'm actually going on for a visit later with him and kind of, uh, wanna check in with the house and, and see him because I haven't seen him in a minute.
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And, uh, I'm kinda curious because, you know, as far as I know, he's not able to be on the ground right now.
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He's not able to, to do anything besides sit in his chair or he's got an oversized, like, love stack bean bag that he sits in, you know.
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And I mean, I really do like the facility he's at right now because it's four residents there.
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There's a, there's a, um, couple of residents that love grabbing him and they, they go,"He's just so cute.
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We love talking with him." And they come out in the living room and they sit with him and they, you know, they, if, you know, he's got a toy hooked up to his wheelchair, you know, with the little chains and, you know, he drops it, you know, they'll get it back to him, make sure he has it, you know, and, but he doesn't have the quality of life that he had before.
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He was, he's, you know, I, I don't wanna, I'm not gonna use the word independent because he's not, but he had some independent movement if he wanted to move from room to room because he would, you know, he'd sit on his knees and he'd bounce around.
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Like you, you saw the, in the clip with the, uh, with the piano.
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Um, that's how, that's, you know, he'd kinda sit, you know, butt on his feet and, you know, then he'd kinda lean forward, launch himself forward, you know?
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And, um, he's not able to do that right now.
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So,
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so he lost some of hi mobility,
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but Mobility because he's always in the chair.
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The other thing that I think happened, and, and you might know more if there's a correlation or a connection, but, uh, so we did immediately pack his things up and move him from the other home.
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We found another home, but it's not as close.
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So now he lives 45 minutes away from me, so it makes it harder to be there routinely.
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So again, you're relying on other people to take care of him, which is tough.
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But since he was home and he's been in this home for six weeks, he has been hospitalized three more times for up to, for a total of about two more
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weeks.
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Six weeks?
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No, no, it's the first
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Two months?
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No, it was the second week of June.
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Okay.
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What was that?
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Two, 10 weeks.
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Okay.
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So 10 weeks.
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Yeah.
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He's been hospitalized for two of those weeks though, again.
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And what happened is he has had esophageal bleeding.
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He's had to go in and be scoped three times.
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They had to close up some pretty large fissures.
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I don't know if this is from the, the trach when he was first intubated, when he had surgery, if it is because he is stressed being in a new home, in a new situation, if he was stressed from being in the hospital, if it's because his meds were changed.
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He was, we found that he was being fed laying down, and so that also made the GERD worse.
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But because of all of those new complications in a new home, because they have to learn who he is, he's had three different scopes and closures for strictures in his throat, uh, where he's been.
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They'll call me and they say he's throwing up blood, and we've had to take him back into the emergency room and he's been in the hospital again.
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So I would definitely say I
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will advocate though on, in their defense that anytime there is anything wrong, we know about it immediately.
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Oh,
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yeah.
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They call me right away.
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Right.
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Which is night and day from what it
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sounds
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like you
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guys
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were Totally.
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They're, they're completely in communication.
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And it's a one to, it's, uh, four residents in this facility and three of them walk.
00:16:35.297 --> 00:16:40.637
So he's totally getting, you know, better care, higher quality care, more interaction.
00:16:40.637 --> 00:16:43.247
It's two to one at the facility, unless it's third shift.
00:16:43.307 --> 00:16:44.717
Um, it's for every time I've been there.
00:16:45.107 --> 00:16:45.507
So Yeah.
00:16:45.677 --> 00:16:47.777
So better, better ratios, right?
00:16:48.047 --> 00:16:50.357
M- more people that can offer him help if he needs it.
00:16:50.357 --> 00:16:50.687
Yeah.
00:16:51.317 --> 00:16:56.507
But the, but the, the tough point it puts a family in is how do you.
00:16:56.597 --> 00:17:02.657
When, with the original facility in Menominee Falls, how do you report a facility when your child is living there?
00:17:03.167 --> 00:17:13.547
And unless you have another place for them to go, a family is really kind of stuck because it's very hard to get a placement for someone, especially a young adult.
00:17:13.606 --> 00:17:17.777
And I had been asking, are there other options?
00:17:18.017 --> 00:17:20.057
And the, the social workers would say.
00:17:20.267 --> 00:17:26.596
And, and they're independent of the social workers would say there's so many limited facilities and they know Jeremy and do you wanna start over?
00:17:26.626 --> 00:17:28.307
It's tough to start over somewhere.
00:17:28.636 --> 00:17:35.356
So it really is like a trifecta of you don't have a new place, a new place doesn't know you, that's gonna cause stress to the resident.
00:17:35.356 --> 00:17:43.156
And how do you file a report and possibly look at retribution, retaliation, your son not getting the best care because you file a report?
00:17:44.237 --> 00:17:44.956
Right, right.
00:17:44.956 --> 00:17:47.956
And it, like you said, it brings up a whole host of questions, right?
00:17:47.956 --> 00:17:52.277
And this is something that many families are faced with, even if it's not this severe, right?
00:17:52.277 --> 00:18:01.997
Even if it, it's minor discrepancies with the living facility, you know, there are so many limited options in the community that you, you're, you're stuck for better or for worse.
00:18:02.086 --> 00:18:06.017
And Colleen, you brought up another good point too, you know, the stress to the individual.
00:18:06.467 --> 00:18:14.267
With this situation, we talked about some of the domino effects that were down the line in terms of, you know, this injury was first, you know, esophageal bleeding, et cetera.
00:18:14.747 --> 00:18:24.196
Beyond the physical injuries and the physical, you know, complications, have you noticed, and this is for both of you, have you noticed any changes in Jeremy emotionally or behaviorally specifically?
00:18:24.227 --> 00:18:27.737
How comfortable is he around caregivers in an unfamiliar environment now?
00:18:28.817 --> 00:18:34.336
I think he's pretty depressed right now because he's not able to get down and, you know, and he's, he's confined to his chair.
00:18:34.636 --> 00:18:36.916
And, you know, like, I, he comes on a home visit.
00:18:36.916 --> 00:18:38.027
I mean, this kid is just.
00:18:38.446 --> 00:18:39.287
He can't, he won't sleep.
00:18:39.287 --> 00:18:42.256
He's just so damn excited, you know, because he's down on the ground.
00:18:42.256 --> 00:18:42.916
He's with family.
00:18:42.916 --> 00:18:46.426
He's with, you know, he's in an environment that he feels safe and comfortable.
00:18:46.426 --> 00:18:51.016
And I'm, you know, being someone that's worked, you know, acute and residential, you know, it's.
00:18:51.356 --> 00:19:02.956
I, I, I've worked with kids and with adults that you can absolutely tell that their mental health is not the greatest sometimes because they miss home or because they're concerned because there's a certain caregiver they don't feel comfortable around, you know?
00:19:02.956 --> 00:19:12.016
And that's something I prided myself on, was making sure that, that when I was there, that, that whoever I worked with felt comfortable with me, because if I was in that situation, I would wanna feel comfortable with whoever was helping me.
00:19:13.126 --> 00:19:15.946
But I think Jeremy's also remarkably resilient.
00:19:15.976 --> 00:19:16.216
Yes.
00:19:16.666 --> 00:19:21.736
And people already see his joy and, and his happiness.
00:19:21.736 --> 00:19:23.216
He's got a maniacal laugh.
00:19:24.146 --> 00:19:31.646
Again, the balance of people learning him, because that maniacal laugh, when he gets an edge to it, is also his pain indicator.
00:19:31.652 --> 00:19:31.916
Mm-hmm.
00:19:31.976 --> 00:19:32.067
Mm-hmm.
00:19:32.067 --> 00:19:35.156
And so they would say,"He's laughing, but he's throwing up blood.
00:19:35.516 --> 00:19:37.856
Send him to the ER." You know, so.
00:19:38.186 --> 00:19:42.236
But I think he's very resilient and he loves to be around people.
00:19:42.236 --> 00:19:48.446
He recognizes us when we see him and he gets excited, so that's, you know, that's the same.
00:19:48.836 --> 00:19:56.696
But that little bit of independence that he did have, and the lack of pain, because we still don't know really how much pain he is on a general basis, what his threshold is.
00:19:56.696 --> 00:19:57.176
So I mean
00:19:57.176 --> 00:19:57.386
Yeah.
00:19:57.386 --> 00:19:58.886
I mean, he's got a high pain tolerance of.
00:19:58.886 --> 00:20:00.626
I've seen this kid whack his head and he starts laughing.
00:20:00.746 --> 00:20:00.956
Well, he
00:20:00.956 --> 00:20:01.136
used
00:20:01.136 --> 00:20:01.346
to
00:20:01.646 --> 00:20:02.396
He'd fall back.
00:20:02.396 --> 00:20:03.676
He used to headbang on purpose.
00:20:03.756 --> 00:20:03.916
Yeah.
00:20:03.956 --> 00:20:04.156
Yeah.
00:20:04.277 --> 00:20:05.966
And he used to hand bite on purpose.
00:20:05.966 --> 00:20:06.656
His first sensory.
00:20:06.656 --> 00:20:06.716
Yeah.
00:20:07.466 --> 00:20:07.676
Yeah.
00:20:07.706 --> 00:20:11.817
Well, and that's, that's the other thing with this, with the first leg injury.
00:20:12.326 --> 00:20:18.746
He, when he was admitted to the hospital, he actually had bleeding lips and he had a rug burn on the back of his hand.
00:20:19.557 --> 00:20:27.896
And I think it's because he laid in frustration after he was originally injured, just kind of biting on his hand where he bruised his lips.
00:20:27.896 --> 00:20:30.866
So that's hard to think about too, because you don't know, was it an hour?
00:20:30.866 --> 00:20:31.976
Was it 20 minutes?
00:20:32.277 --> 00:20:32.426
Right.
00:20:32.426 --> 00:20:35.456
You know, was it just the time in the ambulance that he was stressed?
00:20:35.547 --> 00:20:38.846
But that was another aspect of it.
00:20:39.777 --> 00:20:40.196
Absolutely.
00:20:40.196 --> 00:20:40.287
Yeah.
00:20:40.436 --> 00:20:47.787
I, I wanted to use the bulk of the time to focus on Jeremy, because again, he is the most important person in this story, not necessarily the facility.
00:20:47.787 --> 00:20:51.146
But now, let, let's, let's turn a little bit to the facility itself.
00:20:51.146 --> 00:20:56.936
It l it sounds like from the story that I read, police arrested a former caretaker in connection with Jeremy's case.
00:20:56.966 --> 00:21:04.226
Uh, and according to the latest public re- reporting, it looks like the case is under review by the Waukesha County District Attorney's Office.
00:21:04.466 --> 00:21:07.076
What have you guys been told about this investigation so far?
00:21:08.067 --> 00:21:09.206
I spoke with a detective.
00:21:09.206 --> 00:21:25.676
He said his investigation is done, but he felt that this was deliberate and he wanted to make that known to the DA, because he goes,"Usually we don't arrest somebody unless, you know, in a circumstantial case, unless there is extreme circumstances." And this is the exact words from the detective.
00:21:25.976 --> 00:21:29.576
And he goes,"I needed to make an attack on this case because I wanted to be a voice for him."
00:21:29.787 --> 00:21:35.996
And, and because this was a suspected great bodily harm case, it held, you know, a higher severity.
00:21:36.537 --> 00:21:39.846
I don't believe that the caregiver was suspended No, there was no.
00:21:39.846 --> 00:21:39.996
Or
00:21:39.996 --> 00:21:40.156
fired
00:21:40.156 --> 00:21:40.476
originally.
00:21:40.636 --> 00:21:42.057
There was no, there was no suspension.
00:21:42.057 --> 00:21:42.936
There was He was taken off the schedule.
00:21:42.936 --> 00:21:44.336
No, he was not even taken off the schedule.
00:21:44.336 --> 00:21:45.506
I read all of the reports.
00:21:45.506 --> 00:21:45.807
Really?
00:21:45.807 --> 00:21:47.516
No, they did an internal investigation.
00:21:47.516 --> 00:21:53.726
They found there was, and I quote, according to the report, there was no evidence of abuse or neglect that was found with this specific caregiver.
00:21:53.787 --> 00:21:55.317
However, though, at the end
00:21:55.466 --> 00:21:55.586
They
00:21:55.586 --> 00:21:55.766
did, they did not.
00:21:55.766 --> 00:21:57.116
He still is not fired.
00:21:57.116 --> 00:22:01.557
He was just removed, suspended on basis of what happens with the case.
00:22:01.586 --> 00:22:01.766
Yeah.
00:22:02.067 --> 00:22:04.716
So if he decided to go somewhere else And he could be taking care of someone
00:22:04.716 --> 00:22:04.956
else.
00:22:05.336 --> 00:22:05.696
Yeah.
00:22:05.756 --> 00:22:06.236
Yes.
00:22:06.236 --> 00:22:10.106
There's nothing in the system right now that would prevent him from going to work somewhere else.
00:22:10.856 --> 00:22:15.777
And the, and the field is so short of people that it's just a, a s a spiral.
00:22:15.777 --> 00:22:16.736
It's a vicious cycle.
00:22:16.736 --> 00:22:16.766
O-
00:22:17.396 --> 00:22:24.846
o- one concern that you've raised, and you've raised it publicly and appropriately, is that, you know, this whole thing is bigger than Jeremy's individual case, right?
00:22:24.846 --> 00:22:32.016
That without appropriate accountability, someone could potentially end up caring for another vulnerable person, you know, that, that, that has harmed.
00:22:32.016 --> 00:22:33.486
And, and like this individual.
00:22:33.696 --> 00:22:36.037
How much does that concern you all in this situation?
00:22:36.426 --> 00:22:45.067
I'm, I'm a former manager, so if there was any suspected abuse of any kind, you were mo removed from my schedule until you were completely clear and free and clear.
00:22:45.071 --> 00:22:45.156
Mm.
00:22:45.606 --> 00:23:00.966
And I had some residents and some patients I worked with that were nonverbal that were, you know, autistic Prader-Willi syndrome, you know, some that were, uh, traumatic brain injuries, et cetera, that didn't have a voice that, you know, we had to be the voice for them to, to get to the actual truth of what happened.
00:23:01.027 --> 00:23:07.567
And I, this was not handled, you know, at all in the way it should have been handled by any means.
00:23:07.926 --> 00:23:08.346
Um Yep.
00:23:08.766 --> 00:23:11.736
And I'm a former elementary teacher, so I was a mandatory reporter.
00:23:12.126 --> 00:23:18.096
And so, you know, from his first thing with being child abuse, we always tried to use his story to impact other people.
00:23:18.456 --> 00:23:20.166
There is a purpose Jeremy was here.
00:23:20.196 --> 00:23:21.307
He has a reason.
00:23:21.336 --> 00:23:22.297
He doesn't have a voice.
00:23:22.356 --> 00:23:23.256
That's why we're here.
00:23:23.706 --> 00:23:31.686
And so we used to take him to high schools and talk to child development classes and talk about what you can do if you get frustrated as a caregiver.
00:23:32.016 --> 00:23:34.386
So this is just on another level.
00:23:34.476 --> 00:23:34.537
Okay.
00:23:34.537 --> 00:23:37.176
Again, we need to be Jeremy's voice.
00:23:37.356 --> 00:23:39.486
What can caregivers do when they're stressed?
00:23:39.486 --> 00:23:46.506
How, you know, how can we all mandate people to speak up when they see abuse or neglect?
00:23:47.166 --> 00:23:50.406
And how can Jeremy's story, again, make a, a fuller impact?
00:23:50.466 --> 00:23:54.876
There's almost an unwritten, which, which is, it's god awful to say this, but I've seen it firsthand.
00:23:54.876 --> 00:24:03.876
There's almost an unwritten, you take care of your other staff kind of thing, which, excuse my language, is complete bullshit, because you're there to take care of your people that you were there to take care of.
00:24:04.206 --> 00:24:13.567
You know, I've witnessed and I've reported, you know, uh, different levels of, of, you know, abuse, whether it be verbal or physical or whatever, and you're gone.
00:24:13.777 --> 00:24:17.106
You do not work in this field because you do not need to be here.
00:24:17.376 --> 00:24:23.166
And I will continue to advocate for that because if you cannot handle your own emotions, you know, then you don't need to be there in the first place.
00:24:23.166 --> 00:24:38.226
Not to mention, if you don't have, like, management, I don't care if it's upper management or your direct manager of the home or, or, you know, of your nursing unit or whatever, they need to be held accountable as well because they are not providing the education, the resources, and the support that these staff need.
00:24:39.067 --> 00:24:46.297
And then following through on the record keeping and the processes, if someone does have an incident, is it getting washed away because we don't want our center to do that.
00:24:46.297 --> 00:24:46.386
Right.
00:24:47.346 --> 00:24:49.206
You know, where is the reporting stopping?
00:24:50.226 --> 00:25:01.027
So there, I know that there, there is an alleged, I'm gonna say alleged history of internal reporting things not the way it should be reported because then they don't have to report it to the state.
00:25:01.356 --> 00:25:13.926
So I'm actually working on getting reports from the state and I wanna get reports from the house because I want to audit them to see how did they word these and how did they line up and were these things that were supposed to be reported, you know, were they reported?
00:25:15.216 --> 00:25:15.366
Yeah.
00:25:15.366 --> 00:25:26.266
And, you know, I was actually gonna ask you about that, Shane, because y- you may mention at the very top of the hour that we were go that you were looking, you know, to change some of the legislation around group homes, right?
00:25:26.266 --> 00:25:37.037
And, you know, going through this experience, and I know you've had history before, you know, it sounds like you, you're, you're very well-versed in the, in the system itself, but what have you learned about Wisconsin's system for overseeing group homes?
00:25:37.037 --> 00:25:40.067
And do you believe families at this point in time have enough information?
00:25:40.307 --> 00:25:46.037
Colleen, you spoke to it too about, you know, complaints, staffing and safety records, right, when they're choosing a home.
00:25:47.746 --> 00:25:57.466
So Chapter 83 dictates CBRF, you know, community-based residential facilities, and it's, it's basically, it's, it's, you know, here's, here's the level, and that's it.
00:25:57.886 --> 00:26:07.547
And, you know, it's, it's a, basically, like, a generalized education kind of, you know, like, high school, you know, like, it's generalized of what it is, of what, you know, you need to be certified in.
00:26:07.547 --> 00:26:10.426
First aid, CPR, passing meds Yeah.
00:26:10.426 --> 00:26:11.326
And fire alarms.
00:26:11.326 --> 00:26:11.506
Yeah.
00:26:11.807 --> 00:26:13.037
It's pretty much what it is.
00:26:13.486 --> 00:26:21.826
Um, and then each facility, each company then dictates the further level of training that's required based upon the clientele that you're working with.
00:26:21.916 --> 00:26:44.297
I think there needs to be more med especially if people that are working with, with people that have brain injuries that are, you know, require uses of, of lifts, like a Hoyer or a stand-up or things like that, they need to be trained correctly on that, which would mean that you need to have a license of some kind, which a CNA license covers on how to use all of those things, not just being trained in the facility by somebody else who's been there for 40 years and, oh, this is how you use it.
00:26:44.537 --> 00:26:45.406
I've worked with those people.
00:26:45.406 --> 00:26:50.686
I did agency nursing, and I had some, you know, some people that I worked with, like, oh, this is the way you do it.
00:26:50.956 --> 00:26:51.346
No, you're not.
00:26:51.346 --> 00:26:52.037
You gonna hurt somebody.
00:26:52.547 --> 00:27:01.966
And so there needs to be tighter legislation on the training that's in vinyl and the, the requirements, you know, for working in a facility like this.
00:27:02.866 --> 00:27:07.606
I think there's also some legal loopholes that really cause a conundrum.
00:27:08.057 --> 00:27:14.416
So one of the first things they came back to me and they said,"Well, we told you he falls out of bed." I said,"Wait a minute.
00:27:14.446 --> 00:27:18.016
We had a doctor's note that said he could be in a restricted bed.
00:27:18.016 --> 00:27:19.996
He could be in more like a crib or a guardrail.
00:27:20.356 --> 00:27:36.586
The facility would not allow us to have a specialty bed for him, so their alternative was to put a mat on the floor." But the fact that they said he, we can't restrain him if, when his seatbelt broke, they said, I said,"Put a gait belt on him until I can get there." They said,"We can't restrain him.
00:27:36.886 --> 00:27:40.246
He doesn't have the capability to know that he can't jump out of his chair.
00:27:40.246 --> 00:27:45.136
He's gonna hurt himself." So the law was protecting him to try to keep him in the least restrictive.
00:27:45.141 --> 00:27:45.797
Restrictive environment.
00:27:46.186 --> 00:27:52.606
But a least restrictive is not safe for him unless he has a seatbelt on or unless he has a bed that he can't fall out of.
00:27:52.966 --> 00:27:57.797
So that was one kind of individual rights versus protecting the individual.
00:27:58.246 --> 00:28:01.216
The other piece is, um, the legislation on cameras.
00:28:01.366 --> 00:28:05.807
We can't legally put a camera in his room because that violates his right to privacy.
00:28:06.346 --> 00:28:13.426
Yet, we could protect him and oversee him if there was a camera in his room so we could see what's going on with caregivers.
00:28:13.666 --> 00:28:24.236
So if we were allowed a nanny cam, which is against legislation, maybe we would've seen things with some red flags sooner than this because, because we do care and we wanna see what's going on.
00:28:24.236 --> 00:28:41.906
But, so sometimes the laws that are there are a hindrance instead of a help, you know, especially in a child that's nonverbal and can't, can't share and can't be a witness because it came down to we're having trouble prosecuting because there are no witnesses.
00:28:42.146 --> 00:28:45.396
So it's one person against Jeremy and Jeremy can't say anything.
00:28:46.376 --> 00:28:51.866
You know, there, there are families listening right now who have a child, who have a sibling or a parent living in a group home.
00:28:52.317 --> 00:28:56.277
After everything that you all have experienced, what would you tell those families?
00:28:57.266 --> 00:28:58.166
Know, know your rights
00:28:58.406 --> 00:28:58.586
Yeah.
00:28:58.616 --> 00:28:59.186
First off.
00:28:59.817 --> 00:29:05.037
You have the right to contact DQA if you suspect any sort of, of abuse or neglect.
00:29:05.037 --> 00:29:06.777
I mean, I've re I've reported.
00:29:06.777 --> 00:29:09.956
So I have friends that work in corporate at, you know, the, the parent company.
00:29:09.986 --> 00:29:12.266
I have friends that are regional managers of HIL.
00:29:12.506 --> 00:29:14.396
And things would get, little things would get fixed.
00:29:14.396 --> 00:29:17.787
I mean, I have neglect going back probably seven years.
00:29:17.787 --> 00:29:18.807
I have pictures.
00:29:19.436 --> 00:29:22.886
And things would get resolved, but then they would just go right back to where they were, you know?
00:29:22.886 --> 00:29:29.876
But it took me going to a regional manager who's a friend of mine, you know, because the direct management wasn't able to get it done.
00:29:30.386 --> 00:29:38.426
So, I mean, if there's, if there's something that you seriously think is, is wrong or you have a serious concern, take it to the DQA because they take this stuff very s.
00:29:38.426 --> 00:29:39.956
As you know, they take it very serious.
00:29:39.956 --> 00:29:40.016
Yeah.
00:29:40.047 --> 00:29:40.136
Mm-hmm.
00:29:40.136 --> 00:29:42.116
And just for people that don't know DQA
00:29:42.116 --> 00:29:42.136
is department.
00:29:42.446 --> 00:29:45.807
Department of Quality Assurance through, through the Department of Health Services.
00:29:46.076 --> 00:29:50.096
But I always had a worry that if I complained, I would lose Jeremy's placement.
00:29:50.216 --> 00:29:52.646
So there really is, it's a fine line.
00:29:52.736 --> 00:29:59.576
But parents need to do their homework, and that doesn't just mean visiting once or twice and visiting the home.
00:29:59.666 --> 00:30:06.476
It means being there often at odd hours, checking in, what are their routines, what are their policies?
00:30:06.777 --> 00:30:09.986
And I guess I'd also look, how long have their caregivers been there?
00:30:10.496 --> 00:30:14.966
A, a facility that has caregivers that are staying is doing something right.
00:30:15.567 --> 00:30:19.557
When you go every couple weeks and there's new providers, that should be a warning sign.
00:30:20.067 --> 00:30:20.876
Yeah, red flag.
00:30:21.476 --> 00:30:22.076
Absolutely.
00:30:22.586 --> 00:30:31.016
Well, Shane and Colleen, uh, I, I wanna thank you both for sharing your story, sharing Jeremy with us, and trusting us, you know, with something that is incredibly difficult for your family.
00:30:31.346 --> 00:30:37.886
Uh, as we spoke to before, the thousands of folks across Wisconsin who rely on others for their most basic needs, and they deserve dignity, right?
00:30:37.886 --> 00:30:38.726
They deserve safety.
00:30:39.236 --> 00:30:39.307
Yeah, absolutely.
00:30:39.307 --> 00:30:45.236
I mean, that's And families deserve to, you know, to, to, to have peace of mind when, when they trust in these facilities as well.
00:30:45.866 --> 00:30:52.916
Just because we had to put Jeremy in another place does not mean that we are not caregivers in our own right.
00:30:52.916 --> 00:30:53.186
Absolutely.
00:30:53.246 --> 00:31:02.486
And that's so hard when you have to share that responsibility with someone because the guilt on families when someone is injured is overwhelming.
00:31:02.547 --> 00:31:08.516
And just because I couldn't provide care physically doesn't mean that I don't care and love Jeremy.
00:31:08.726 --> 00:31:09.416
Absolutely.
00:31:09.836 --> 00:31:12.596
And I know that there are other parents struggling with the same issue.
00:31:12.596 --> 00:31:12.866
Absolutely.
00:31:13.406 --> 00:31:32.426
I mean, right now this is a different way that we can kind of help care for him right now is, you know, we're trying to prevent this from happening to him ever again or to anyone else, you know, because people have a right to live with dignity and people have a right to, to live, you know, and, and not live in fear, you know, and be able to live their best quality of their life.
00:31:33.641 --> 00:31:33.912
Absolutely.
00:31:33.912 --> 00:31:35.021
Thank you for raising awareness,
00:31:35.591 --> 00:31:35.861
Dr.
00:31:35.861 --> 00:31:36.041
Ford.
00:31:36.041 --> 00:31:36.091
Yeah, I really appreciate Dr.
00:31:36.091 --> 00:31:36.101
Ford.
00:31:36.101 --> 00:31:36.581
Thank you so much.
00:31:36.581 --> 00:31:37.211
Absolutely.
00:31:37.211 --> 00:31:38.412
And, and feel free to reach out.
00:31:38.412 --> 00:31:43.031
Anything that we can do to help promote anything you guys have going on, we're gonna check back in with you.
00:31:43.031 --> 00:31:45.521
Hopefully, you know, we, we'll be happy to have you back on again.
00:31:45.731 --> 00:31:46.902
Share more Jeremy's stories.
00:31:46.902 --> 00:31:48.071
Give us updates as well.
00:31:48.791 --> 00:31:49.301
Awesome.
00:31:49.391 --> 00:31:49.751
Awesome.
00:31:49.811 --> 00:31:50.762
We'll keep you looped in.
00:31:50.943 --> 00:31:51.461
Yeah, thank you so
00:31:51.461 --> 00:31:51.581
much.
00:31:51.581 --> 00:31:51.881
Thank you again.
00:01:03.546 --> 00:01:05.466
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon.
00:01:05.466 --> 00:01:05.826
This Dr.
00:01:05.826 --> 00:01:07.566
Ford, Pulse Check Wisconsin.
00:01:07.656 --> 00:01:09.367
I wanna thank you guys for joining us again.
00:01:09.697 --> 00:01:11.587
Thank you for joining us for a new season here.
00:01:12.096 --> 00:01:16.866
Uh, as always at Pulse Check Wisconsin, our goal is to make you the voice, right?
00:01:16.866 --> 00:01:23.287
To make, uh, give, give power back to the people and to make sure that we're telling the stories that you may have just only heard once or twice.
00:01:23.287 --> 00:01:32.856
And, you know, we have a story here today that, you know, could sh- should concern everyone, especially everyone who has a family member who has ever entrusted the care of a loved one to someone else.
00:01:32.856 --> 00:01:36.007
And, you know, there's some stories on the radio, some stories on WISM.
00:01:36.007 --> 00:01:37.356
We'll play a clip here in a little bit.
00:01:37.686 --> 00:01:41.706
But more so, you know, I, I feel like especially with news stories, we'll, we'll see it.
00:01:41.706 --> 00:01:43.986
It'll be a flash in the pan and then it's gone, right?
00:01:44.076 --> 00:01:57.667
But I wanna make sure that we give folks an opportunity to really tell the story, give us a little bit of the background, and hopefully we can all put our heads together to try to decide how we can prevent occurrences like this from happening in, in the future and to get justice where, where justice is due.
00:01:57.667 --> 00:02:01.716
And so before we get into it, I wanna play this quick clip just to give you guys some background here.
00:02:02.406 --> 00:02:11.286
26-year-old Jeremy McCarthy has cerebral palsy, can't walk or eat on his own, and is non-verbal, but his family says he can communicate in other ways.
00:02:11.586 --> 00:02:15.667
They say their happy son was changed by a horrific leg injury.
00:02:15.757 --> 00:02:16.447
It's been tough.
00:02:16.926 --> 00:02:19.206
It's tough as a parent to watch your child in pain.
00:02:19.206 --> 00:02:21.966
Jeremy's leg was broken in multiple places.
00:02:21.966 --> 00:02:25.417
It happened on May 29th at his group home in Menominee Falls.
00:02:25.716 --> 00:02:29.646
Colleen says she learned about it first from a surgeon who called her.
00:02:29.706 --> 00:02:31.057
This is a bad injury.
00:02:31.266 --> 00:02:33.966
This is akin to what we usually see with a car accident.
00:02:33.997 --> 00:02:36.727
She said she realized right away something wasn't right.
00:02:36.817 --> 00:02:42.846
Jeremy was found in his bed with a broken leg, but he can't put himself into bed if he falls.
00:02:42.937 --> 00:02:44.586
I think it was someone that was frustrated.
00:02:44.586 --> 00:02:50.257
It was definitely an abusive situation and it was, it, it was traumatic.
00:02:50.917 --> 00:02:50.947
Menominee
00:02:51.997 --> 00:02:54.937
So I'm gonna stop it right there because w- what I wanna do is highlight a couple things.
00:02:54.937 --> 00:02:59.317
So Jeremy McCarthy, again from the story, is a 26-year-old Wisconsin man with cerebral palsy.
00:02:59.317 --> 00:03:04.417
He's nonverbal, he cannot walk independently, and he relies on others for many aspects of his daily care.
00:03:04.417 --> 00:03:05.406
We see this often.
00:03:05.826 --> 00:03:10.867
Uh, you know, he unfortunately suffered a devastating leg injury while living in a group home and Menominee falls.
00:03:10.867 --> 00:03:14.346
And his family is now asking the important questions that we all should be asking.
00:03:14.346 --> 00:03:15.606
And that's, you know, what happened?
00:03:15.606 --> 00:03:22.656
Um, you know, they want accountability and perhaps most importantly, like we said, how do we prevent something like this from happening to another vulnerable person?
00:03:22.687 --> 00:03:28.927
So today we have Jeremy's mother, Colleen, uh, and Colleen's other son, Shane, who joins us today in Pulse Check, Wisconsin.
00:03:28.927 --> 00:03:33.127
Colleen and Shane, thank you guys so much for trusting us here with Jeremy's story.
00:03:33.997 --> 00:03:34.596
Thanks, Dr.
00:03:34.596 --> 00:03:35.617
Ford, for inviting us.
00:03:35.617 --> 00:03:36.307
We appreciate it.
00:03:36.666 --> 00:03:37.237
Absolutely.
00:03:37.237 --> 00:03:44.766
So, you know, before we, we talk about what happened, I feel like what's lost in a lot of this is, you know, who, who, who the individual is as a person.
00:03:44.766 --> 00:03:47.586
So I want people to know Jeremy as a person.
00:03:47.586 --> 00:03:48.726
Tell me a little bit about Jeremy.
00:03:51.067 --> 00:03:53.737
Jeremy came to us when he was 17 months old.
00:03:54.127 --> 00:04:02.326
He was an, in the foster care system, he was actually a child of shaking baby syndrome, and it's a really specific type of shaken baby called shaken impact.
00:04:02.747 --> 00:04:08.987
So when he was anywhere between one and three months old, he was probably thrown across a room multiple times.
00:04:09.377 --> 00:04:15.286
Very traumatic injury, three different skull fractures at different stages of healing.
00:04:15.346 --> 00:04:18.286
He was then failure to thrive, put in the foster care system.
00:04:18.286 --> 00:04:19.427
We were his fourth placement.
00:04:19.456 --> 00:04:26.387
Due to his siblings, he has four siblings that we already had at home, they brightened up his world.
00:04:26.416 --> 00:04:33.557
He responded to them, he learned how to communicate with them non-verbally, grew and thrived beyond what they thought he would be.
00:04:33.557 --> 00:04:41.807
But because of his shaking, he has cerebral palsy, a feeding tube, a shunt, a leg length discrepancy, so one leg was always longer than the other.
00:04:42.047 --> 00:04:46.096
He never learned how to walk or crawl, but he did jump around on his knees.
00:04:46.096 --> 00:04:48.257
So he, he did grow and develop.
00:04:48.257 --> 00:04:53.117
Everybody that meets Jeremy thinks he is just a happy, bubbly, um, boy.
00:04:53.387 --> 00:04:53.956
He's.
00:04:54.377 --> 00:04:56.177
W- what else could you wanna add?
00:04:57.047 --> 00:05:02.026
Yeah, I mean, I, I have, I have friends that are, you know, ready to go to bat for me on this whole thing.
00:05:02.026 --> 00:05:23.656
Like they've never met him, you know, but they love seeing the videos and the pictures and, you know, I have, you know, videos I've posted of him, you know, at, at my house and he's kinda bouncing around and he's just smiling, laughing hysterically and, you know, or he'll go and, um, you know, because of the cerebral palsy, he doesn't have great motor control, but he knows if he wants your attention, he'll grab, try to grab something and he'll get your attention pretty fast.
00:05:23.656 --> 00:05:27.317
And he thinks it's just funny because, you know, I'm not supposed to be doing this, but I'm gonna do it.
00:05:28.187 --> 00:05:28.426
Yeah.
00:05:28.546 --> 00:05:40.306
And like, and like a lot of special needs people, he knows a lot more than he can share, which has to be so hard because he can't tell us how he was hurt and that's what's so frustrating for us.
00:05:40.306 --> 00:05:51.166
So this happened when he was a baby and that's how he became in this situation where once he was an adult, I couldn't provide care for him and I couldn't expect the children, you know, my other siblings to care for him.
00:05:51.796 --> 00:05:53.507
That's why we went to a group home.
00:05:53.507 --> 00:06:00.346
I thought that people that worked in a group home were nurses aides or had medical certification and they really don't.
00:06:01.156 --> 00:06:05.416
There's not a system that really tracks them if there is an incident.
00:06:05.476 --> 00:06:06.166
There, there is.
00:06:06.166 --> 00:06:14.836
There is no required medical training in the state of Wisconsin in regards to having a CNA license or any nursing license or anything like that in order to work in a community-based residential facility.
00:06:15.076 --> 00:06:17.387
Those are all dictated and governed under Chapter 83.
00:06:17.627 --> 00:06:27.226
So what we're trying to do right now is look at some of this legislation and go,"What, where is the, the, the gaps that are missing here that's causing this, this kind of stuff to happen?"
00:06:28.187 --> 00:06:28.486
Yeah.
00:06:28.757 --> 00:06:29.986
And you bring up a good point, right?
00:06:29.986 --> 00:06:33.586
Like, you know, especially with, if there's no standardized medical care, right?
00:06:33.586 --> 00:06:37.246
Jeremy is relying on people for many aspects of his life.
00:06:37.246 --> 00:06:38.447
Colleen, as you spoke to, right?
00:06:38.447 --> 00:06:39.676
Like you said, he's got G-tube.
00:06:40.067 --> 00:06:44.206
Uh, he has, you know, inability to ambulate due to the discrepancy and hemiplegia, right?
00:06:44.476 --> 00:06:49.697
You know, what does it, what does it mean to place that level of trust in another person to care for your child?
00:06:50.356 --> 00:06:52.606
It's certainly not a decision you take lightly.
00:06:52.606 --> 00:07:01.526
I struggle with it on a daily basis, but I know that I'm not the only one that physically cannot handle an adult-sized person.
00:07:01.586 --> 00:07:03.326
I mean, I'm reaching retirement age.
00:07:03.447 --> 00:07:04.526
I can't take full.
00:07:04.526 --> 00:07:05.576
And I'm still working full-time.
00:07:06.116 --> 00:07:09.776
I can't take full-time care of someone the way that Jeremy needs.
00:07:09.806 --> 00:07:17.306
We also wanted him involved with other young adults, and once you're, once you transition out of school age, you don't have that many opportunities for that.
00:07:17.786 --> 00:07:22.856
And so we really trusted that someone was there with his best interest.
00:07:22.856 --> 00:07:25.046
If an accident happened, that's one thing.
00:07:25.556 --> 00:07:33.387
But to say Jeremy woke up this way in this care facility is unreasonable for us to believe that that's what happened.
00:07:33.416 --> 00:07:43.706
And if it was a fall or an accident, we might have more understanding, but to say that this just happened and no one knows why, and there's only one person overnight at the center.
00:07:43.706 --> 00:07:46.556
So, you know, taking care of six to eight adults.
00:07:46.646 --> 00:07:50.426
So the, the official story with that is he was found in, found in bed that way.
00:07:50.426 --> 00:07:53.246
Well, there are safety precautions and fall precautions in place.
00:07:53.246 --> 00:08:00.776
There's a mat on the ground throughout his entire room because he's, like my mom said, he sits on his knees and kind of bounces, you know, that's how he gets around.
00:08:01.586 --> 00:08:04.346
But, you know, he's not ambulatory, so he's confined to his wheelchair.
00:08:04.346 --> 00:08:14.786
So they didn't want him on the ground because then he would get into mischief because he would, you know, grab onto stuff because, you know, he can move his left arm and, um, so he was pretty much confined in his wheelchair for the entire time he was there.
00:08:14.817 --> 00:08:21.866
So then the other fall precaution that they had with that is his bed was about 16 inches off the ground with another mattress under his bed.
00:08:22.197 --> 00:08:28.437
So you're falling at that point, you're falling maybe 10, 12 inches to the ground that it, that sort of impact his knee gotta break a femur.
00:08:29.666 --> 00:08:36.267
Well, and then the other part is that it was an inside out injury and Jeremy's very contracted.
00:08:36.267 --> 00:08:39.447
He tends to bo go into a fetal position, especially when he's stressed.
00:08:39.447 --> 00:08:39.507
Yeah.
00:08:39.986 --> 00:08:46.047
So this injury happened from the inside of the thigh out with bruising from the inside out.
00:08:46.047 --> 00:08:53.397
So when you can think of someone that's contractured, if they fell, it would be an external in injury, not internal out.
00:08:54.116 --> 00:08:54.297
Right.
00:08:54.356 --> 00:08:55.317
Well, well, let me ask you all this.
00:08:55.317 --> 00:09:04.856
So, you know, I, I, I don't know who was told first, but could you guys take us back to that day in May when, when, when did you all first realize something had happened and something was wrong?
00:09:05.517 --> 00:09:10.226
So, um, I'm just gonna run through kind of company policy real quick of how the, what should have happened.
00:09:10.257 --> 00:09:23.787
So what should have happened is when he was first discovered, you have a call made to medical on call, um, to a manager on call, to a coordinator on call, who then will call director, and then throughout that entire change, somewhere along the line is notifying the guardian.
00:09:23.996 --> 00:09:30.387
All of that happens in the first 10 to 15 minutes of any sort of incident that requires EMS, police, et ce you know, et cetera.
00:09:30.956 --> 00:09:31.677
None of that happened.
00:09:31.677 --> 00:09:33.447
So they broke their own policy.
00:09:33.447 --> 00:09:37.947
The ambulance was called like 5:30 ish, a little before, in the morning.
00:09:38.487 --> 00:09:40.917
I was home, I would've answered my phone, always do.
00:09:40.977 --> 00:09:46.887
And I did not get a call until my voicemail started going off with an unknown number.
00:09:47.277 --> 00:09:50.877
And I didn't know Apple pushed out a spam thing, a filter.
00:09:51.057 --> 00:09:52.267
So it was sending.
00:09:52.597 --> 00:09:53.917
The surgeon was trying to call me.
00:09:54.007 --> 00:09:57.727
It was sending the surgeon to my voicemail, and I had three messages.
00:09:58.027 --> 00:09:59.586
They said,"We have your son here.
00:09:59.917 --> 00:10:05.466
He has a leg injury." And it was the surgeon calling to say they wanted to operate and they needed my consent.
00:10:05.527 --> 00:10:07.117
And he said,"This is bad.
00:10:07.417 --> 00:10:11.007
You need to get, you need to get down here." This was 9:30.
00:10:11.107 --> 00:10:12.997
So, you know, four hours later So
00:10:12.997 --> 00:10:13.177
she.
00:10:13.237 --> 00:10:14.167
They said it was like.
00:10:14.407 --> 00:10:17.887
Yeah, that was like a car accident, this injury looks like.
00:10:17.887 --> 00:10:17.947
Wow.
00:10:18.817 --> 00:10:30.456
Ever hear from anyone at the center until I got to the hospital, which was then probably by 10:30 or 11:00 by the time I got down there, there was an aide there from the center who wasn't at the home that morning.
00:10:30.456 --> 00:10:31.537
She came into the hospital.
00:10:31.567 --> 00:10:36.576
She is the first one from the facility that talked to me and she called someone at the facility.
00:10:36.667 --> 00:10:38.706
No one ever reached out on my, on their own.
00:10:39.877 --> 00:10:42.517
And, and, and, you know, to, to give the listeners a little bit of a background, right?
00:10:42.517 --> 00:10:47.497
So it takes a lot to go from being in your home to having a surgeon call you, right?
00:10:47.497 --> 00:10:49.357
There's a lot of steps in between that, right?
00:10:49.357 --> 00:10:51.157
There, there's EMS that gets involved.
00:10:51.427 --> 00:10:59.227
I have to see you or someone, you know, the emergency physician or emergency care practitioner has to see you first, and then a surgeon's called, and then the decision is made for surgery, right?
00:10:59.227 --> 00:11:07.477
So there, there, there are hours that, that, that are between what actually happened as well as, you know, when the surgeon decided to call and tell you how severe those injuries are.
00:11:07.716 --> 00:11:12.877
Colleen, as a, as a parent, what goes through your mind when you're hearing that your child's injuries are that severe?
00:11:13.627 --> 00:11:55.047
It, I mean, your, your heart kind of falls to your gut, and it was worse than.
00:11:55.137 --> 00:11:55.917
You have to stay calm.
00:11:55.917 --> 00:11:58.557
You have to get through, you have to get to that facility, right?
00:11:58.557 --> 00:12:00.267
So you're working on adrenaline.
00:12:00.837 --> 00:12:14.637
When I got there and I sat with him and I saw him contracted in pain, and he literally, for the first two days, held onto my hand so tight that I had, you know, dense and marks in my hand and my thumb was blue.
00:12:14.667 --> 00:12:18.357
He, he was in just a significant, significant amount of pain.
00:12:18.357 --> 00:12:20.967
This wasn't even just a standard break.
00:12:20.997 --> 00:12:24.537
It was called a displaced fracture or butterfly fracture.
00:12:24.537 --> 00:12:30.477
So the thigh bone was split, broken out, and a piece laid over the top of it.
00:12:30.477 --> 00:12:32.697
I think they showed one of the angles in the clip.
00:12:32.697 --> 00:12:32.757
Yeah.
00:12:33.267 --> 00:12:48.267
But that, and then watching him go through x-rays and watching the leg move when they tried to manipulate him for x-rays, it was just enough to make you nauseous because it was so unnatural and you know that the reason that it happened was not accidental.
00:12:50.007 --> 00:12:53.817
So, so after the surgeon called you, walk me through the course after that.
00:12:53.817 --> 00:12:55.227
Did, did he go to surgery?
00:12:55.227 --> 00:12:57.747
You know, how, how, what is his recovery like today?
00:12:58.617 --> 00:13:01.227
So, if I can say the name, we were at Froedtert.
00:13:01.347 --> 00:13:03.627
It was, by that time, it was a Friday.
00:13:03.956 --> 00:13:04.826
It was busy.
00:13:04.857 --> 00:13:06.807
There was people coming in and out.
00:13:06.867 --> 00:13:19.137
They put him slated on the schedule Friday afternoon, Friday night, and he kept getting pushed because of other emergencies that were coming into Froedtert because he was stable at that point in time.
00:13:19.617 --> 00:13:23.037
And then by that time, we had pain meds on board.
00:13:23.037 --> 00:13:25.826
His surgery didn't happen until Sunday afternoon.
00:13:25.826 --> 00:13:29.887
Um, and then he was in the hospital for almost two weeks.
00:13:30.517 --> 00:13:35.977
And so now is he, is he, you know, going through rehabilita- rehabilitation, you know, what, h- how is his pain now?
00:13:35.977 --> 00:13:36.637
How is he doing?
00:13:37.807 --> 00:13:44.497
So I'm actually going on for a visit later with him and kind of, uh, wanna check in with the house and, and see him because I haven't seen him in a minute.
00:13:44.557 --> 00:13:50.497
And, uh, I'm kinda curious because, you know, as far as I know, he's not able to be on the ground right now.
00:13:50.497 --> 00:13:56.887
He's not able to, to do anything besides sit in his chair or he's got an oversized, like, love stack bean bag that he sits in, you know.
00:13:56.956 --> 00:14:01.297
And I mean, I really do like the facility he's at right now because it's four residents there.
00:14:01.387 --> 00:14:06.247
There's a, there's a, um, couple of residents that love grabbing him and they, they go,"He's just so cute.
00:14:06.247 --> 00:14:20.227
We love talking with him." And they come out in the living room and they sit with him and they, you know, they, if, you know, he's got a toy hooked up to his wheelchair, you know, with the little chains and, you know, he drops it, you know, they'll get it back to him, make sure he has it, you know, and, but he doesn't have the quality of life that he had before.
00:14:20.227 --> 00:14:30.877
He was, he's, you know, I, I don't wanna, I'm not gonna use the word independent because he's not, but he had some independent movement if he wanted to move from room to room because he would, you know, he'd sit on his knees and he'd bounce around.
00:14:30.877 --> 00:14:33.097
Like you, you saw the, in the clip with the, uh, with the piano.
00:14:33.197 --> 00:14:42.007
Um, that's how, that's, you know, he'd kinda sit, you know, butt on his feet and, you know, then he'd kinda lean forward, launch himself forward, you know?
00:14:42.007 --> 00:14:44.797
And, um, he's not able to do that right now.
00:14:44.797 --> 00:14:45.037
So,
00:14:45.157 --> 00:14:47.076
so he lost some of hi mobility,
00:14:47.076 --> 00:14:48.157
but Mobility because he's always in the chair.
00:14:48.367 --> 00:14:59.347
The other thing that I think happened, and, and you might know more if there's a correlation or a connection, but, uh, so we did immediately pack his things up and move him from the other home.
00:14:59.437 --> 00:15:01.567
We found another home, but it's not as close.
00:15:01.597 --> 00:15:06.157
So now he lives 45 minutes away from me, so it makes it harder to be there routinely.
00:15:07.087 --> 00:15:10.117
So again, you're relying on other people to take care of him, which is tough.
00:15:10.567 --> 00:15:20.047
But since he was home and he's been in this home for six weeks, he has been hospitalized three more times for up to, for a total of about two more
00:15:20.047 --> 00:15:20.527
weeks.
00:15:20.527 --> 00:15:20.767
Six weeks?
00:15:20.767 --> 00:15:21.477
No, no, it's the first
00:15:21.477 --> 00:15:21.956
Two months?
00:15:22.147 --> 00:15:23.887
No, it was the second week of June.
00:15:24.217 --> 00:15:24.517
Okay.
00:15:24.757 --> 00:15:25.057
What was that?
00:15:25.267 --> 00:15:25.877
Two, 10 weeks.
00:15:25.917 --> 00:15:26.197
Okay.
00:15:26.237 --> 00:15:26.947
So 10 weeks.
00:15:27.576 --> 00:15:27.817
Yeah.
00:15:28.027 --> 00:15:30.667
He's been hospitalized for two of those weeks though, again.
00:15:31.087 --> 00:15:34.027
And what happened is he has had esophageal bleeding.
00:15:34.206 --> 00:15:36.547
He's had to go in and be scoped three times.
00:15:36.547 --> 00:15:38.917
They had to close up some pretty large fissures.
00:15:38.947 --> 00:15:53.347
I don't know if this is from the, the trach when he was first intubated, when he had surgery, if it is because he is stressed being in a new home, in a new situation, if he was stressed from being in the hospital, if it's because his meds were changed.
00:15:54.307 --> 00:15:59.257
He was, we found that he was being fed laying down, and so that also made the GERD worse.
00:15:59.647 --> 00:16:11.887
But because of all of those new complications in a new home, because they have to learn who he is, he's had three different scopes and closures for strictures in his throat, uh, where he's been.
00:16:11.947 --> 00:16:17.137
They'll call me and they say he's throwing up blood, and we've had to take him back into the emergency room and he's been in the hospital again.
00:16:17.617 --> 00:16:19.087
So I would definitely say I
00:16:19.087 --> 00:16:23.447
will advocate though on, in their defense that anytime there is anything wrong, we know about it immediately.
00:16:23.447 --> 00:16:23.557
Oh,
00:16:23.557 --> 00:16:23.797
yeah.
00:16:23.837 --> 00:16:25.067
They call me right away.
00:16:25.157 --> 00:16:25.247
Right.
00:16:25.247 --> 00:16:26.687
Which is night and day from what it
00:16:26.687 --> 00:16:27.047
sounds
00:16:27.047 --> 00:16:27.347
like you
00:16:27.347 --> 00:16:27.617
guys
00:16:27.617 --> 00:16:27.947
were Totally.
00:16:29.206 --> 00:16:31.067
They're, they're completely in communication.
00:16:31.067 --> 00:16:34.877
And it's a one to, it's, uh, four residents in this facility and three of them walk.
00:16:35.297 --> 00:16:40.637
So he's totally getting, you know, better care, higher quality care, more interaction.
00:16:40.637 --> 00:16:43.247
It's two to one at the facility, unless it's third shift.
00:16:43.307 --> 00:16:44.717
Um, it's for every time I've been there.
00:16:45.107 --> 00:16:45.507
So Yeah.
00:16:45.677 --> 00:16:47.777
So better, better ratios, right?
00:16:48.047 --> 00:16:50.357
M- more people that can offer him help if he needs it.
00:16:50.357 --> 00:16:50.687
Yeah.
00:16:51.317 --> 00:16:56.507
But the, but the, the tough point it puts a family in is how do you.
00:16:56.597 --> 00:17:02.657
When, with the original facility in Menominee Falls, how do you report a facility when your child is living there?
00:17:03.167 --> 00:17:13.547
And unless you have another place for them to go, a family is really kind of stuck because it's very hard to get a placement for someone, especially a young adult.
00:17:13.606 --> 00:17:17.777
And I had been asking, are there other options?
00:17:18.017 --> 00:17:20.057
And the, the social workers would say.
00:17:20.267 --> 00:17:26.596
And, and they're independent of the social workers would say there's so many limited facilities and they know Jeremy and do you wanna start over?
00:17:26.626 --> 00:17:28.307
It's tough to start over somewhere.
00:17:28.636 --> 00:17:35.356
So it really is like a trifecta of you don't have a new place, a new place doesn't know you, that's gonna cause stress to the resident.
00:17:35.356 --> 00:17:43.156
And how do you file a report and possibly look at retribution, retaliation, your son not getting the best care because you file a report?
00:17:44.237 --> 00:17:44.956
Right, right.
00:17:44.956 --> 00:17:47.956
And it, like you said, it brings up a whole host of questions, right?
00:17:47.956 --> 00:17:52.277
And this is something that many families are faced with, even if it's not this severe, right?
00:17:52.277 --> 00:18:01.997
Even if it, it's minor discrepancies with the living facility, you know, there are so many limited options in the community that you, you're, you're stuck for better or for worse.
00:18:02.086 --> 00:18:06.017
And Colleen, you brought up another good point too, you know, the stress to the individual.
00:18:06.467 --> 00:18:14.267
With this situation, we talked about some of the domino effects that were down the line in terms of, you know, this injury was first, you know, esophageal bleeding, et cetera.
00:18:14.747 --> 00:18:24.196
Beyond the physical injuries and the physical, you know, complications, have you noticed, and this is for both of you, have you noticed any changes in Jeremy emotionally or behaviorally specifically?
00:18:24.227 --> 00:18:27.737
How comfortable is he around caregivers in an unfamiliar environment now?
00:18:28.817 --> 00:18:34.336
I think he's pretty depressed right now because he's not able to get down and, you know, and he's, he's confined to his chair.
00:18:34.636 --> 00:18:36.916
And, you know, like, I, he comes on a home visit.
00:18:36.916 --> 00:18:38.027
I mean, this kid is just.
00:18:38.446 --> 00:18:39.287
He can't, he won't sleep.
00:18:39.287 --> 00:18:42.256
He's just so damn excited, you know, because he's down on the ground.
00:18:42.256 --> 00:18:42.916
He's with family.
00:18:42.916 --> 00:18:46.426
He's with, you know, he's in an environment that he feels safe and comfortable.
00:18:46.426 --> 00:18:51.016
And I'm, you know, being someone that's worked, you know, acute and residential, you know, it's.
00:18:51.356 --> 00:19:02.956
I, I, I've worked with kids and with adults that you can absolutely tell that their mental health is not the greatest sometimes because they miss home or because they're concerned because there's a certain caregiver they don't feel comfortable around, you know?
00:19:02.956 --> 00:19:12.016
And that's something I prided myself on, was making sure that, that when I was there, that, that whoever I worked with felt comfortable with me, because if I was in that situation, I would wanna feel comfortable with whoever was helping me.
00:19:13.126 --> 00:19:15.946
But I think Jeremy's also remarkably resilient.
00:19:15.976 --> 00:19:16.216
Yes.
00:19:16.666 --> 00:19:21.736
And people already see his joy and, and his happiness.
00:19:21.736 --> 00:19:23.216
He's got a maniacal laugh.
00:19:24.146 --> 00:19:31.646
Again, the balance of people learning him, because that maniacal laugh, when he gets an edge to it, is also his pain indicator.
00:19:31.652 --> 00:19:31.916
Mm-hmm.
00:19:31.976 --> 00:19:32.067
Mm-hmm.
00:19:32.067 --> 00:19:35.156
And so they would say,"He's laughing, but he's throwing up blood.
00:19:35.516 --> 00:19:37.856
Send him to the ER." You know, so.
00:19:38.186 --> 00:19:42.236
But I think he's very resilient and he loves to be around people.
00:19:42.236 --> 00:19:48.446
He recognizes us when we see him and he gets excited, so that's, you know, that's the same.
00:19:48.836 --> 00:19:56.696
But that little bit of independence that he did have, and the lack of pain, because we still don't know really how much pain he is on a general basis, what his threshold is.
00:19:56.696 --> 00:19:57.176
So I mean
00:19:57.176 --> 00:19:57.386
Yeah.
00:19:57.386 --> 00:19:58.886
I mean, he's got a high pain tolerance of.
00:19:58.886 --> 00:20:00.626
I've seen this kid whack his head and he starts laughing.
00:20:00.746 --> 00:20:00.956
Well, he
00:20:00.956 --> 00:20:01.136
used
00:20:01.136 --> 00:20:01.346
to
00:20:01.646 --> 00:20:02.396
He'd fall back.
00:20:02.396 --> 00:20:03.676
He used to headbang on purpose.
00:20:03.756 --> 00:20:03.916
Yeah.
00:20:03.956 --> 00:20:04.156
Yeah.
00:20:04.277 --> 00:20:05.966
And he used to hand bite on purpose.
00:20:05.966 --> 00:20:06.656
His first sensory.
00:20:06.656 --> 00:20:06.716
Yeah.
00:20:07.466 --> 00:20:07.676
Yeah.
00:20:07.706 --> 00:20:11.817
Well, and that's, that's the other thing with this, with the first leg injury.
00:20:12.326 --> 00:20:18.746
He, when he was admitted to the hospital, he actually had bleeding lips and he had a rug burn on the back of his hand.
00:20:19.557 --> 00:20:27.896
And I think it's because he laid in frustration after he was originally injured, just kind of biting on his hand where he bruised his lips.
00:20:27.896 --> 00:20:30.866
So that's hard to think about too, because you don't know, was it an hour?
00:20:30.866 --> 00:20:31.976
Was it 20 minutes?
00:20:32.277 --> 00:20:32.426
Right.
00:20:32.426 --> 00:20:35.456
You know, was it just the time in the ambulance that he was stressed?
00:20:35.547 --> 00:20:38.846
But that was another aspect of it.
00:20:39.777 --> 00:20:40.196
Absolutely.
00:20:40.196 --> 00:20:40.287
Yeah.
00:20:40.436 --> 00:20:47.787
I, I wanted to use the bulk of the time to focus on Jeremy, because again, he is the most important person in this story, not necessarily the facility.
00:20:47.787 --> 00:20:51.146
But now, let, let's, let's turn a little bit to the facility itself.
00:20:51.146 --> 00:20:56.936
It l it sounds like from the story that I read, police arrested a former caretaker in connection with Jeremy's case.
00:20:56.966 --> 00:21:04.226
Uh, and according to the latest public re- reporting, it looks like the case is under review by the Waukesha County District Attorney's Office.
00:21:04.466 --> 00:21:07.076
What have you guys been told about this investigation so far?
00:21:08.067 --> 00:21:09.206
I spoke with a detective.
00:21:09.206 --> 00:21:25.676
He said his investigation is done, but he felt that this was deliberate and he wanted to make that known to the DA, because he goes,"Usually we don't arrest somebody unless, you know, in a circumstantial case, unless there is extreme circumstances." And this is the exact words from the detective.
00:21:25.976 --> 00:21:29.576
And he goes,"I needed to make an attack on this case because I wanted to be a voice for him."
00:21:29.787 --> 00:21:35.996
And, and because this was a suspected great bodily harm case, it held, you know, a higher severity.
00:21:36.537 --> 00:21:39.846
I don't believe that the caregiver was suspended No, there was no.
00:21:39.846 --> 00:21:39.996
Or
00:21:39.996 --> 00:21:40.156
fired
00:21:40.156 --> 00:21:40.476
originally.
00:21:40.636 --> 00:21:42.057
There was no, there was no suspension.
00:21:42.057 --> 00:21:42.936
There was He was taken off the schedule.
00:21:42.936 --> 00:21:44.336
No, he was not even taken off the schedule.
00:21:44.336 --> 00:21:45.506
I read all of the reports.
00:21:45.506 --> 00:21:45.807
Really?
00:21:45.807 --> 00:21:47.516
No, they did an internal investigation.
00:21:47.516 --> 00:21:53.726
They found there was, and I quote, according to the report, there was no evidence of abuse or neglect that was found with this specific caregiver.
00:21:53.787 --> 00:21:55.317
However, though, at the end
00:21:55.466 --> 00:21:55.586
They
00:21:55.586 --> 00:21:55.766
did, they did not.
00:21:55.766 --> 00:21:57.116
He still is not fired.
00:21:57.116 --> 00:22:01.557
He was just removed, suspended on basis of what happens with the case.
00:22:01.586 --> 00:22:01.766
Yeah.
00:22:02.067 --> 00:22:04.716
So if he decided to go somewhere else And he could be taking care of someone
00:22:04.716 --> 00:22:04.956
else.
00:22:05.336 --> 00:22:05.696
Yeah.
00:22:05.756 --> 00:22:06.236
Yes.
00:22:06.236 --> 00:22:10.106
There's nothing in the system right now that would prevent him from going to work somewhere else.
00:22:10.856 --> 00:22:15.777
And the, and the field is so short of people that it's just a, a s a spiral.
00:22:15.777 --> 00:22:16.736
It's a vicious cycle.
00:22:16.736 --> 00:22:16.766
O-
00:22:17.396 --> 00:22:24.846
o- one concern that you've raised, and you've raised it publicly and appropriately, is that, you know, this whole thing is bigger than Jeremy's individual case, right?
00:22:24.846 --> 00:22:32.016
That without appropriate accountability, someone could potentially end up caring for another vulnerable person, you know, that, that, that has harmed.
00:22:32.016 --> 00:22:33.486
And, and like this individual.
00:22:33.696 --> 00:22:36.037
How much does that concern you all in this situation?
00:22:36.426 --> 00:22:45.067
I'm, I'm a former manager, so if there was any suspected abuse of any kind, you were mo removed from my schedule until you were completely clear and free and clear.
00:22:45.071 --> 00:22:45.156
Mm.
00:22:45.606 --> 00:23:00.966
And I had some residents and some patients I worked with that were nonverbal that were, you know, autistic Prader-Willi syndrome, you know, some that were, uh, traumatic brain injuries, et cetera, that didn't have a voice that, you know, we had to be the voice for them to, to get to the actual truth of what happened.
00:23:01.027 --> 00:23:07.567
And I, this was not handled, you know, at all in the way it should have been handled by any means.
00:23:07.926 --> 00:23:08.346
Um Yep.
00:23:08.766 --> 00:23:11.736
And I'm a former elementary teacher, so I was a mandatory reporter.
00:23:12.126 --> 00:23:18.096
And so, you know, from his first thing with being child abuse, we always tried to use his story to impact other people.
00:23:18.456 --> 00:23:20.166
There is a purpose Jeremy was here.
00:23:20.196 --> 00:23:21.307
He has a reason.
00:23:21.336 --> 00:23:22.297
He doesn't have a voice.
00:23:22.356 --> 00:23:23.256
That's why we're here.
00:23:23.706 --> 00:23:31.686
And so we used to take him to high schools and talk to child development classes and talk about what you can do if you get frustrated as a caregiver.
00:23:32.016 --> 00:23:34.386
So this is just on another level.
00:23:34.476 --> 00:23:34.537
Okay.
00:23:34.537 --> 00:23:37.176
Again, we need to be Jeremy's voice.
00:23:37.356 --> 00:23:39.486
What can caregivers do when they're stressed?
00:23:39.486 --> 00:23:46.506
How, you know, how can we all mandate people to speak up when they see abuse or neglect?
00:23:47.166 --> 00:23:50.406
And how can Jeremy's story, again, make a, a fuller impact?
00:23:50.466 --> 00:23:54.876
There's almost an unwritten, which, which is, it's god awful to say this, but I've seen it firsthand.
00:23:54.876 --> 00:24:03.876
There's almost an unwritten, you take care of your other staff kind of thing, which, excuse my language, is complete bullshit, because you're there to take care of your people that you were there to take care of.
00:24:04.206 --> 00:24:13.567
You know, I've witnessed and I've reported, you know, uh, different levels of, of, you know, abuse, whether it be verbal or physical or whatever, and you're gone.
00:24:13.777 --> 00:24:17.106
You do not work in this field because you do not need to be here.
00:24:17.376 --> 00:24:23.166
And I will continue to advocate for that because if you cannot handle your own emotions, you know, then you don't need to be there in the first place.
00:24:23.166 --> 00:24:38.226
Not to mention, if you don't have, like, management, I don't care if it's upper management or your direct manager of the home or, or, you know, of your nursing unit or whatever, they need to be held accountable as well because they are not providing the education, the resources, and the support that these staff need.
00:24:39.067 --> 00:24:46.297
And then following through on the record keeping and the processes, if someone does have an incident, is it getting washed away because we don't want our center to do that.
00:24:46.297 --> 00:24:46.386
Right.
00:24:47.346 --> 00:24:49.206
You know, where is the reporting stopping?
00:24:50.226 --> 00:25:01.027
So there, I know that there, there is an alleged, I'm gonna say alleged history of internal reporting things not the way it should be reported because then they don't have to report it to the state.
00:25:01.356 --> 00:25:13.926
So I'm actually working on getting reports from the state and I wanna get reports from the house because I want to audit them to see how did they word these and how did they line up and were these things that were supposed to be reported, you know, were they reported?
00:25:15.216 --> 00:25:15.366
Yeah.
00:25:15.366 --> 00:25:26.266
And, you know, I was actually gonna ask you about that, Shane, because y- you may mention at the very top of the hour that we were go that you were looking, you know, to change some of the legislation around group homes, right?
00:25:26.266 --> 00:25:37.037
And, you know, going through this experience, and I know you've had history before, you know, it sounds like you, you're, you're very well-versed in the, in the system itself, but what have you learned about Wisconsin's system for overseeing group homes?
00:25:37.037 --> 00:25:40.067
And do you believe families at this point in time have enough information?
00:25:40.307 --> 00:25:46.037
Colleen, you spoke to it too about, you know, complaints, staffing and safety records, right, when they're choosing a home.
00:25:47.746 --> 00:25:57.466
So Chapter 83 dictates CBRF, you know, community-based residential facilities, and it's, it's basically, it's, it's, you know, here's, here's the level, and that's it.
00:25:57.886 --> 00:26:07.547
And, you know, it's, it's a, basically, like, a generalized education kind of, you know, like, high school, you know, like, it's generalized of what it is, of what, you know, you need to be certified in.
00:26:07.547 --> 00:26:10.426
First aid, CPR, passing meds Yeah.
00:26:10.426 --> 00:26:11.326
And fire alarms.
00:26:11.326 --> 00:26:11.506
Yeah.
00:26:11.807 --> 00:26:13.037
It's pretty much what it is.
00:26:13.486 --> 00:26:21.826
Um, and then each facility, each company then dictates the further level of training that's required based upon the clientele that you're working with.
00:26:21.916 --> 00:26:44.297
I think there needs to be more med especially if people that are working with, with people that have brain injuries that are, you know, require uses of, of lifts, like a Hoyer or a stand-up or things like that, they need to be trained correctly on that, which would mean that you need to have a license of some kind, which a CNA license covers on how to use all of those things, not just being trained in the facility by somebody else who's been there for 40 years and, oh, this is how you use it.
00:26:44.537 --> 00:26:45.406
I've worked with those people.
00:26:45.406 --> 00:26:50.686
I did agency nursing, and I had some, you know, some people that I worked with, like, oh, this is the way you do it.
00:26:50.956 --> 00:26:51.346
No, you're not.
00:26:51.346 --> 00:26:52.037
You gonna hurt somebody.
00:26:52.547 --> 00:27:01.966
And so there needs to be tighter legislation on the training that's in vinyl and the, the requirements, you know, for working in a facility like this.
00:27:02.866 --> 00:27:07.606
I think there's also some legal loopholes that really cause a conundrum.
00:27:08.057 --> 00:27:14.416
So one of the first things they came back to me and they said,"Well, we told you he falls out of bed." I said,"Wait a minute.
00:27:14.446 --> 00:27:18.016
We had a doctor's note that said he could be in a restricted bed.
00:27:18.016 --> 00:27:19.996
He could be in more like a crib or a guardrail.
00:27:20.356 --> 00:27:36.586
The facility would not allow us to have a specialty bed for him, so their alternative was to put a mat on the floor." But the fact that they said he, we can't restrain him if, when his seatbelt broke, they said, I said,"Put a gait belt on him until I can get there." They said,"We can't restrain him.
00:27:36.886 --> 00:27:40.246
He doesn't have the capability to know that he can't jump out of his chair.
00:27:40.246 --> 00:27:45.136
He's gonna hurt himself." So the law was protecting him to try to keep him in the least restrictive.
00:27:45.141 --> 00:27:45.797
Restrictive environment.
00:27:46.186 --> 00:27:52.606
But a least restrictive is not safe for him unless he has a seatbelt on or unless he has a bed that he can't fall out of.
00:27:52.966 --> 00:27:57.797
So that was one kind of individual rights versus protecting the individual.
00:27:58.246 --> 00:28:01.216
The other piece is, um, the legislation on cameras.
00:28:01.366 --> 00:28:05.807
We can't legally put a camera in his room because that violates his right to privacy.
00:28:06.346 --> 00:28:13.426
Yet, we could protect him and oversee him if there was a camera in his room so we could see what's going on with caregivers.
00:28:13.666 --> 00:28:24.236
So if we were allowed a nanny cam, which is against legislation, maybe we would've seen things with some red flags sooner than this because, because we do care and we wanna see what's going on.
00:28:24.236 --> 00:28:41.906
But, so sometimes the laws that are there are a hindrance instead of a help, you know, especially in a child that's nonverbal and can't, can't share and can't be a witness because it came down to we're having trouble prosecuting because there are no witnesses.
00:28:42.146 --> 00:28:45.396
So it's one person against Jeremy and Jeremy can't say anything.
00:28:46.376 --> 00:28:51.866
You know, there, there are families listening right now who have a child, who have a sibling or a parent living in a group home.
00:28:52.317 --> 00:28:56.277
After everything that you all have experienced, what would you tell those families?
00:28:57.266 --> 00:28:58.166
Know, know your rights
00:28:58.406 --> 00:28:58.586
Yeah.
00:28:58.616 --> 00:28:59.186
First off.
00:28:59.817 --> 00:29:05.037
You have the right to contact DQA if you suspect any sort of, of abuse or neglect.
00:29:05.037 --> 00:29:06.777
I mean, I've re I've reported.
00:29:06.777 --> 00:29:09.956
So I have friends that work in corporate at, you know, the, the parent company.
00:29:09.986 --> 00:29:12.266
I have friends that are regional managers of HIL.
00:29:12.506 --> 00:29:14.396
And things would get, little things would get fixed.
00:29:14.396 --> 00:29:17.787
I mean, I have neglect going back probably seven years.
00:29:17.787 --> 00:29:18.807
I have pictures.
00:29:19.436 --> 00:29:22.886
And things would get resolved, but then they would just go right back to where they were, you know?
00:29:22.886 --> 00:29:29.876
But it took me going to a regional manager who's a friend of mine, you know, because the direct management wasn't able to get it done.
00:29:30.386 --> 00:29:38.426
So, I mean, if there's, if there's something that you seriously think is, is wrong or you have a serious concern, take it to the DQA because they take this stuff very s.
00:29:38.426 --> 00:29:39.956
As you know, they take it very serious.
00:29:39.956 --> 00:29:40.016
Yeah.
00:29:40.047 --> 00:29:40.136
Mm-hmm.
00:29:40.136 --> 00:29:42.116
And just for people that don't know DQA
00:29:42.116 --> 00:29:42.136
is department.
00:29:42.446 --> 00:29:45.807
Department of Quality Assurance through, through the Department of Health Services.
00:29:46.076 --> 00:29:50.096
But I always had a worry that if I complained, I would lose Jeremy's placement.
00:29:50.216 --> 00:29:52.646
So there really is, it's a fine line.
00:29:52.736 --> 00:29:59.576
But parents need to do their homework, and that doesn't just mean visiting once or twice and visiting the home.
00:29:59.666 --> 00:30:06.476
It means being there often at odd hours, checking in, what are their routines, what are their policies?
00:30:06.777 --> 00:30:09.986
And I guess I'd also look, how long have their caregivers been there?
00:30:10.496 --> 00:30:14.966
A, a facility that has caregivers that are staying is doing something right.
00:30:15.567 --> 00:30:19.557
When you go every couple weeks and there's new providers, that should be a warning sign.
00:30:20.067 --> 00:30:20.876
Yeah, red flag.
00:30:21.476 --> 00:30:22.076
Absolutely.
00:30:22.586 --> 00:30:31.016
Well, Shane and Colleen, uh, I, I wanna thank you both for sharing your story, sharing Jeremy with us, and trusting us, you know, with something that is incredibly difficult for your family.
00:30:31.346 --> 00:30:37.886
Uh, as we spoke to before, the thousands of folks across Wisconsin who rely on others for their most basic needs, and they deserve dignity, right?
00:30:37.886 --> 00:30:38.726
They deserve safety.
00:30:39.236 --> 00:30:39.307
Yeah, absolutely.
00:30:39.307 --> 00:30:45.236
I mean, that's And families deserve to, you know, to, to, to have peace of mind when, when they trust in these facilities as well.
00:30:45.866 --> 00:30:52.916
Just because we had to put Jeremy in another place does not mean that we are not caregivers in our own right.
00:30:52.916 --> 00:30:53.186
Absolutely.
00:30:53.246 --> 00:31:02.486
And that's so hard when you have to share that responsibility with someone because the guilt on families when someone is injured is overwhelming.
00:31:02.547 --> 00:31:08.516
And just because I couldn't provide care physically doesn't mean that I don't care and love Jeremy.
00:31:08.726 --> 00:31:09.416
Absolutely.
00:31:09.836 --> 00:31:12.596
And I know that there are other parents struggling with the same issue.
00:31:12.596 --> 00:31:12.866
Absolutely.
00:31:13.406 --> 00:31:32.426
I mean, right now this is a different way that we can kind of help care for him right now is, you know, we're trying to prevent this from happening to him ever again or to anyone else, you know, because people have a right to live with dignity and people have a right to, to live, you know, and, and not live in fear, you know, and be able to live their best quality of their life.
00:31:33.641 --> 00:31:33.912
Absolutely.
00:31:33.912 --> 00:31:35.021
Thank you for raising awareness,
00:31:35.591 --> 00:31:35.861
Dr.
00:31:35.861 --> 00:31:36.041
Ford.
00:31:36.041 --> 00:31:36.091
Yeah, I really appreciate Dr.
00:31:36.091 --> 00:31:36.101
Ford.
00:31:36.101 --> 00:31:36.581
Thank you so much.
00:31:36.581 --> 00:31:37.211
Absolutely.
00:31:37.211 --> 00:31:38.412
And, and feel free to reach out.
00:31:38.412 --> 00:31:43.031
Anything that we can do to help promote anything you guys have going on, we're gonna check back in with you.
00:31:43.031 --> 00:31:45.521
Hopefully, you know, we, we'll be happy to have you back on again.
00:31:45.731 --> 00:31:46.902
Share more Jeremy's stories.
00:31:46.902 --> 00:31:48.071
Give us updates as well.
00:31:48.791 --> 00:31:49.301
Awesome.
00:31:49.391 --> 00:31:49.751
Awesome.
00:31:49.811 --> 00:31:50.762
We'll keep you looped in.
00:31:50.943 --> 00:31:51.461
Yeah, thank you so
00:31:51.461 --> 00:31:51.581
much.
00:31:51.581 --> 00:31:51.881
Thank you again.
