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Another
teen dies in residential treatment
Katherine Rice
Age: 16 years
Program: KidsPeace
May 8, 2008 -
Wider use of methadone to ease pain is proving
deadly May 6, 2008 -
KidsPeace conducting own investigation into
death of 16-year-old
May 5, 2008 -
Aunt: Girls took pills through night
May 3, 2008 -
Girl who OD'd at KidsPeace dies
May 2, 2008 -
Coroner: Teen dies after methadone overdose at
KidsPeace
Wider use of methadone to ease
pain is proving deadly
KidsPeace death puts spotlight on growing national problem
May 9, 2008
By Ann Wlazelek
When two 16-year-old girls
overdosed on methadone last month at KidsPeace, it wasn't just a
case of teens trying to get high that went tragically wrong.
The one girl's death was another
example of a growing national problem in which methadone's
transition from detox drug to pain reliever has put it in the hands
of people who don't understand its effects.
Recent statistics from the National
Center for Health Statistics show the number of methadone deaths
nationwide rose from 786 in 1999 to 4,462 in 2005. That's a nearly
sixfold increase and a faster rate of increase than for any other
drug, including cocaine and heroin.
Experts say the problem has
escalated in recent years as methadone, which had been under tight
controls at clinics treating heroin addiction, was released for
prescription pain relief to a growing elderly population.
''Once the floodgates opened you
had fewer doctors and patients familiar with [methadone's] unique
pharmacological properties,'' said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of
substance abuse treatment for the federal government's Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
''Pain relief is not immediate''
with methadone, Clark explained. The medicine is metabolized over
time for maximum, long-lasting relief. Those who don't know can take
toxic amounts, he said, adding that the substance abuse agency and
other government agencies are trying to reverse the trend with
education, regulation and monitoring.
The rise in death rates occurred
among all age groups but varied from state to state, according to
Lois A. Fingerhut of the national data center's office of analysis
and epidemiology whose report on the trend was released in February.
Five states reported
methadone-related death rates that doubled or tripled the national
rate of 1.5 per 100,000 population in 2005: Maine (4.6), Utah (4.5),
Washington (4.3), New Hampshire and Nevada (both 3.9).
Pennsylvania's rate was relatively
low at 0.9 per 100,000. But because the numbers were small, the
increase was tenfold, from 11 cases in 1999 to 114 in 2005.
Beyond the death of the KidsPeace
teen, local drug treatment officials and coroners this week were
unaware of serious abuse or misuse of methadone in Lehigh and
Northampton counties.
Tim Munsch, executive director of
the Lehigh Valley Drug and Alcohol Intake Unit, said five people
seeking treatment in the past year reported methadone as their drug
of choice. Although that was more than in previous years, Munsch
said he's not convinced it reflects a significant increase in abuse
as much as an increase in doctors prescribing the medicine for pain
relief.
What caused the death May 2 of
16-year-old Katherine Rice and nearly killed the other girl at
KidsPeace remains under investigation. Authorities said the girls
stole methadone pills from their counselor April 16 at the nonprofit
agency's group home for troubled youth in Saylorsburg.
Also, the aunt of the 16-year-old
who was recovering from an overdose has said the girls kept taking
more methadone because the first dose didn't give them the high they
anticipated.
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim is
awaiting toxicology results before ruling on the manner and cause of
Rice's death. Typically, he said, methadone is not the lone culprit
in a drug-related death. More often, those who take methadone and
die had also consumed alcohol or other drugs.
Methadone has been used
successfully in the detoxification and rehabilitation of heroin
addicts since the 1960s. But authorities say clinic clients aren't
responsible for the rapid rise in death rates.
Glen Cooper, who runs the region's
New Directions methadone clinic in Bethlehem Township, said nearly
100 percent of the methadone dispensed at clinics is in liquid form,
not pills. And it's rare for clients to misuse pills provided for
overseas vacations.
Cocaine and opiods other then
heroin, such as the prescription pain-killer oxycodone, contributed
to more drug-related deaths in each of the seven years studied by
the National Center for Health Statistics than did methadone. But no
other controlled substance studied touched the rapid rise for deaths
involving methadone.
To prevent abuse and misuse, the
substance abuse agency is working with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Department
of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration and others on
''rational solutions,'' Clark said. That includes educating
physicians, pharmacists and patients about methadone's slow-acting
properties.
The substance abuse agency is
sponsoring training programs for the prescription of controlled
narcotics, including methadone, at the West Virginia University
School of Medicine. Clark said West Virginia has the dubious
distinction of having the highest rate of accidental deaths,
including methadone overdoses, in the country.
The training will continue in North
Carolina and New England states this summer.
Regarding tighter controls, the FDA
more than a year ago approved a revised label with instructions that
cut the dosing schedule in half, according to Nick Reuter, a senior
public health analyst for the substance abuse agency .
And in January, several companies
that make methadone all agreed to voluntarily restrict distribution
of the 40-milligram tablets that were resulting in a majority of
overdoses. They'll go only to the more highly controlled methadone
clinics.
Stacy Kreideman, spokeswoman for
the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said any death from the
prescription drug is tragic.
''Methadone is an important drug, a
valuable treatment for narcotic withdrawal,'' she said. ''But it's
also dangerous and needs to be monitored.''
ann.wlazelek@mcall.com
KidsPeace conducting own
investigation into death of 16-year-old
May 6, 2008
By Dan Berrett
The group home where a girl died
Friday after overdosing on methadone is doing its own investigation
into the tragedy.
KidsPeace, a Pennsylvania-based
agency that works with troubled children in 11 states and the
District of Columbia, is conducting its own quality assurance
investigation, said Mark Stubis, a spokesman with the organization.
"We are really therapists and not
investigators," he said, but added that the agency wanted to
understand the root causes of what had happened.
Katherine Rice, 16, died Friday
afternoon after overdosing on methadone. Another girl, also 16, is
still recovering at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
KidsPeace officials have said the
methadone was apparently stolen from a counselor who was driving the
teens to an appointment. Stubis said the counselor was legally
prescribed methadone for relief of chronic pain from a back injury,
according to press reports.
The girls were found unconscious at
about 8 a.m. on April 17 at the Saylorsburg facility, where both
were housed. The facility is identified as a "dual diagnosis" center
that treats children with drug or alcohol abuse problems and
emotional difficulties. It is not a detox center.
"We're extremely careful to keep
at-risk youngsters safe," Stubis said. "We've run the program in
Saylorsburg successfully for 20 years and never had a problem like
this."
KidsPeace also operates an acute
partial hospitalization clinic in Stroudsburg. It helps children
whose severe emotional wounds prevent them from functioning in
school or out in the community. It provides hours of daily
individual, group and family therapy that allow students to live at
home and not be hospitalized.
Each year, KidsPeace works with
about 10,000 children nationally who suffer from abuse and neglect,
and from life-threatening bouts with drug and alcohol abuse. The
organization runs children's psychiatric hospitals, education sites,
specialized residential and community-based treatment programs, and
foster care.
It was started more than 125 years
ago by William Thurston, founder of the company that eventually
became known as Bethlehem Steel, to help children who had been
orphaned by the small pox epidemic.
The death of Rice, whose mother
lives near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was a blemish on the agency,
which has prided itself on its educational, health and criminal
justice record.
One study showed that students at
KidsPeace had gained 1.25 years for each year they were enrolled in
that school system. It looked at 17 years of pre- and post-testing
math and reading scores using the Stanford Achievement Test.
Typically, students suffering from abuse and neglect progressed only
half a year for each academic year. This study was conducted
internally, not by a disinterested third party.
Another self-generated report found
that nearly nine children out of 10 who had been in the juvenile
justice system but then attended KidsPeace had not been adjudicated
after leaving.
While at least two suffocation
deaths have occurred at KidsPeace in the past, Stubis characterized
them as not representative of the full picture of the organization —
which he said should be judged in the context of such high-stakes
and high-risk sites such as trauma centers, not schools. More than 3
in 100 children die in pediatric trauma centers, which typically
produce the best results among trauma centers treating children,
according to The Journal of Trauma.
KidsPeace estimates that it has
treated more than 150,000 children over its history.
Locally, KidsPeace surfaced in the
news nearly a year ago when the body of Mandie Coco, 12, of East
Stroudsburg, was found in what was ruled a murder-suicide at the
hand of her father. The girl had been referred to KidsPeace, which
contacted police to report her missing.
The state Department of Public
Welfare reportedly has closed admissions to the Saylorsburg home
while it looks into why the counselor had the pills and how Rice and
the other teen got them. The New Jersey Department of Children and
Families has suspended referrals to KidsPeace. State police are also
investigating, according to press reports.
"We do think this was an isolated
incident and it doesn't provide any danger to any youngsters,"
Stubis said of Rice's death. "We literally save thousands of lives
every day — children in the most severe crisis. To lose one of them
is heartbreaking."
The Associated Press contributed to
this report.
Aunt: Girls took pills through
night
May 5, 2008
BY Matt Assad
Families, KidsPeace officials await
results of toxicology tests for teen who died of apparent overdose
of methadone.
After downing pills stolen from
their KidsPeace counselor, two 16-year-old girls were disappointed
that the methadone wasn't giving them the high they wanted, said one
girl's aunt.
So they took more pills, and they
kept taking them through the night, said Karla Ramirez in an
interview on Sunday.
By the morning of April 17, both
girls had lapsed into a coma in the Saylorsburg group home run by
KidsPeace.
Ironically, Ramirez said the very
quality that has methadone gaining respect as a pain reliever -- its
slow release of medication over a long period of time -- probably
led to the death of 16-year-old Katherine Rice and nearly killed
Ramirez's 16-year-old niece, who remains in satisfactory condition
as she recovers in Lehigh Valley Hospital.
''When the effects didn't hit right
away, they just kept taking more pills,'' Ramirez said her niece
explained to her while recalling the incident. ''They had no idea
what they were dealing with.''
After more than two weeks in a
coma, Rice died Friday. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said an
autopsy performed Sunday at Lehigh Valley Hospital was just the
first step in trying to confirm what most everyone already assumes:
She probably died from an overdose of the methadone pills stolen
from her KidsPeace counselor.
''There were no signs of trauma and
really nothing inconsistent with the public story that this was an
overdose,'' Grim said. ''But I'm leaving the manner and cause of
death open until we get back toxicology tests and the investigations
are completed.''
The girls stole the pills April 16
from their counselor at the KidsPeace group home for troubled youths
who have substance abuse problems, police investigators and
KidsPeace officials said.
The counselor has been put on paid
administrative leave, and investigations are being conducted by
state police at Lehighton and the state Department of Public
Welfare, which holds KidsPeace's license to operate in Pennsylvania.
The incident has caused New Jersey to cut off all referrals to
KidsPeace and Pennsylvania to cut off new referrals to the
Saylorsburg group home until the investigations are complete.
But the incident has the families
asking why the counselor allowed such a narcotic near teens who have
struggled with drug addiction, and why KidsPeace's supervision of
them did not prevent the girls from stealing the drugs.
''We have a lot of questions, and
to this point we've been getting a lot of different stories about
how this happened,'' Karla Ramirez said. ''Why did a counselor have
narcotics in a place where these girls could get them? We haven't
received a good answer to that.''
KidsPeace spokesman Mark Stubis
said the agency's investigation showed that the counselor was
legally prescribed the drug to use for chronic pain she experiences
from back problems.
Though methadone has for decades
been used to help addicts wean themselves from abusing heroin, it
has in recent years been frequently prescribed for the treatment of
moderate to severe pain. Among its benefits is that a single dose
can last 24 to 48 hours, said Dr. Matthew Grove, a physician
contracted to give drug-related consultation to other doctors and
hospitals as part of a nationwide poison control hotline.
Methadone's key benefit is that,
unlike other pain medications, its effects are time-released. So, it
doesn't kick in quickly to produce an initial high, but rather
provides steady pain relief over a longer period of time.
It has always carried a stigma
associated with its other use in treating drug abusers, and has only
recently become more popular for pain relief.
''Morphine and other drugs act more
quickly, because they don't have the time-release element, but they
also wear off much quicker,'' Grove said. ''Methadone has sort of
gotten a bad rap because of its initial use to treat addicts. It's
actually a very effective, and appropriate medication for some
people with chronic pain.''
According to Ramirez, her niece
said the bottle of pills was stolen from the counselor during the
day. The girls began taking the pills that evening, but when they
didn't get the desired high, they continued to take more and more
pills throughout the night, she said.
With every pill they took, they
unknowingly were increasing the effects that would hit them later.
During their months at the
KidsPeace group home, the two girls had developed a close
friendship, Ramirez said. Now, in the days since the incident,
Ramirez said her family has developed a unique bond with the family
of Katherine Rice.
''They were together in the
hospital fighting for their lives. Our hearts go out to [Katherine
Rice's] family,'' Ramirez said. ''We've become close to them, and
you can bet that as KidsPeace tries to explain how this could have
happened, they will be answering to two families united in their
mission to find the truth.''
matthew.assad@mcall.com
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Girl who OD'd at KidsPeace dies
May 3, 2008
By Jeanne Bonner and Veronica Torrejón
She and another girl allegedly took stolen methadone from counselor.
Second teen faces tough recovery, her uncle says. One of two
teenage girls who overdosed on methadone that one of them allegedly
stole from a counselor at a KidsPeace group home died Friday.
Katherine Rice, 16, was pronounced
dead at 3:30 p.m. in Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, Lehigh
County Coroner Scott Grim said. He would not give the cause of
death, saying an autopsy will be done Sunday.
It was the third unnatural death in
the last 15 years at KidsPeace, of North Whitehall Township.
State police are investigating the
overdoses, which happened April 17 at the KidsPeace home in
Saylorsburg. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare closed
admissions to the home while it is investigating how the teens got
the pills and why the counselor had them.
On Tuesday, the New Jersey
Department of Children and Families suspended referrals to KidsPeace
pending the results of the inquiry.
Rice had been in critical condition
since the overdose, but the nature of her injuries or illness was
unknown.
The surviving girl, also 16, is
recovering at LVH and faces a long battle to regain motor and
cognitive skills lost as a result of the overdose, her uncle, Don
Ramirez, said Friday. Ramirez, who lives in West Virginia, said her
arm is paralyzed and she has blood clots.
''She's doing well, given
everything that has happened,'' he said.
Ramirez, who said he works with
developmentally disabled people, said he took issue with previous
statements by KidsPeace spokesman Mark Stubis about counselors using
narcotics.
Stubis has said the nonprofit
agency's investigation showed the counselor was legally prescribed
methadone for pain relief.
''He is essentially saying they
were allowing a staff person on a narcotic to not only supervise the
kids but transport them,'' Ramirez said. ''I just found that
extremely disturbing.''
Asked to respond, Stubis said more
and more people with severe pain are getting prescriptions for
methadone. He said the counselor, who is on paid administrative
leave, has chronic pain because of a back injury.
Stubis said KidsPeace is reviewing
its policies and awaiting the results of the police investigation,
but it's unclear if the agency will change any procedures. He said
KidsPeace believes the overdoses were ''an isolated incident in one
small program in the Poconos.''
He expressed sadness over Rice's
death. ''This is really hard for us,'' he said. ''It is
heartbreaking that both could not be saved.''
Stubis would not say how long Rice
had been at the group home, which now houses seven teens. Grim, the
coroner, said her mother lives in the Saratoga Springs area of New
York.
The Pennsylvania investigation is
expected to conclude in the coming weeks, welfare department
spokeswoman Ann Bale said Friday.
While awaiting those results, no
New Jersey referrals will be made to KidsPeace, said Kate Bernyk, a
spokeswoman for the state's Department of Children and Families. She
said neither of the girls involved in the incident was referred by
New Jersey.
State police at Lehighton are
continuing to investigate the overdoses and had nothing new to
report Friday, Trooper Jamie Sgarlat said.
KidsPeace came under fire in 1993
when 12-year-old Jason Tallman of Barnegat, N.J., died while being
restrained, and again in 1998 when 14-year-old Mark Draheim of
Pelican Island, N.J., also died while being restrained.
After each of the deaths, KidsPeace
adopted a new restraint method to reduce the risk of suffocation.
Tallman and Draheim both died of suffocation.
KidsPeace has been trying to
rebound from a tough year. The number of youths at the KidsPeace
main campus fell after the Pennsylvania welfare department closed
admissions last September.
With admissions down, KidsPeace had
to lay off 79 workers and slash its $170 million budget by $20
million.
Coroner: Teen dies after methadone
overdose at KidsPeace
May 2, 2008
The Lehigh County coroner says one
of two teenagers who overdosed on methadone at a KidsPeace facility
in Monroe County has now died. 16-year-old Katherine Rice died
Friday afternoon at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
She and another teenage girl
overdosed at the KidsPeace center in Saylorsburg back on April 17th.
A spokesman for KidsPeace says the pills were apparently stolen from
a counselor when she drove one of the teenagers to an appointment.
State Police and the coroner's office are investigating. An autopsy
is scheduled for Sunday. KidsPeace says the other girl is improving.
Word of the two overdoses prompted the New Jersey Department of
Children and Families to put a hold on admissions to KidsPeace
facilities in Pennsylvania.
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