Apr
16
Originally published in The Palm Beach Post on Wednesday, April 16, 2008.
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
When Isaiah White was 6, he was one of the youngest patients living at SandyPines psychiatric hospital in Tequesta.
There, the first-grader was forced into full body restraints and left in a place called the “quiet room.” When he misbehaved, workers injected him with Haldol, a powerful drug meant for adults with schizophrenia.
Now, at age 11, five years after the psychiatric treatment that his mother believes made his emotional problems worse, Isaiah is a regular kid who collects skateboards and hangs out with friends.
This year, he started smiling in family photos for the first time, Cheryll White said.
“He is starting to enjoy life,” she said. “He’s not the angry little guy who runs around with his arms folded.”
The family gained some relief this month when she agreed to settle a lawsuit about his treatment at SandyPines. She alleged in the suit that workers at the center for emotionally disturbed children forced Isaiah into isolation for excessive periods and once left him lying in his own vomit.
White’s attorney, Arthur Schofield, said Tuesday the amount of the settlement is confidential, but “it’s a good sum of money and I hope it helps Isaiah.”
The Palm Beach Post wrote about Isaiah’s treatment at SandyPines in 2003, quoting from hospital records that documented the Haldol injections and restraints. SandyPines Chief Executive Officer John Thompson declined to comment for that story and could not be reached Tuesday.
But in December 2005, when White filed suit, Thompson issueda statement saying, “We are looking forward to proving these spurious allegations completely false and unfounded and will defend our position to the fullest extent possible.”
In 2006, Health Management Associates Inc. of Naples sold the psychiatric hospital to a new corporate owner: Franklin, Tenn.-based SP Behavioral LLC, an affiliate of Psychiatric Solutions Inc.
Isaiah, who is now in sixth grade, was born with life-threatening breathing problems. As a baby, he was given a tracheostomy that left him unable to cry or speak until the breathing tube was removed. He returned to the hospital for multiple surgeries that must have terrified him, White said.
She believes the trauma he endured during that time led to his violent behavior. By the time Isaiah was in preschool, he was frustrated and defiant, attacking his teachers and family members. White became afraid that he would stab one of them with the scissors and knives he grabbed from drawers.
Overwhelmed, afraid he would hurt someone and unable to pay for a residential program such as SandyPines, White temporarily gave up custody of Isaiah to the state in 2002. The Department of Children and Families sent him to a therapeutic foster home and then to SandyPines.
White repeatedly voiced concerns about her son’s treatment at the center, which she believed compounded Isaiah’s trauma by reminding him of his frightening hospital stays as a young child. But the final decisions were no longer up to her because she had relinquished his custody to DCF so Medicaid could pay for his care.
Isaiah lived at SandyPines from September 2002 to March 2003, when he was transferred to a smaller psychiatric program in Broward County. There, White said, her son’s behavior began to improve.
White said Isaiah got even better after he came home. White moved the family to Georgia and focused on her parenting, learning to set boundaries and curbing her impulse to spoil Isaiah because of everything he had been through.
Isaiah is 5-feet-6 now, almost as tall as his mom. He still has medical problems, White said, but everything else seems different now. He hasn’t been restrained since the fourth grade. The school district officially has dropped the label “emotionally disturbed” from his file. He isn’t in therapy.
“I no longer fear Isaiah at all,” White said. “I feel I have total control.”
For years, Isaiah never smiled, not even for the camera, White said. This year, he looks happier in photos, she said.
A few years ago, she allowed him to read the story written about him in 2003 and asked him what he thought. His answer was simple:
“It reminds me of where I’ll never go again.”
Copyright 2008 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
April 16, 2008 Wednesday
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