|
First Anniversary of Jonathan Carey's
Death
February 15, 2008
By Paul Merill
Lisa Carey holds up pictures of
her son
Jonathan on the one-year anniversary
of his death. The images show the boy
with a black eye and swollen nose. The
boy's parents say they used the law
named after their son to find records
showing he was alone with Edwin Tirado
shortly before these injuries appeared.
(Barry Sanders)
Friday marks the one-year
anniversary of the death of Jonathan Carey, the 13-year-old autistic
boy from Delmar who died after being improperly restrained by an O.D
Heck Developmental Center aide.
"Lisa and I know where our boy is,"
says Michael Carey, Jonathan's father. "We know where Jonathan is
and we know he's fine and that gives us incredible peace."
Michael and Lisa Carey are marking
the sad date by demanding better access to healthcare records in New
York State.
They Careys were successful in
getting lawmakers to pass Jonathan's Law last year.
The legislation opened up four
year's worth of patient records to the parents of people receiving
care for disabilities.
Governor Eliot Spitzer signed
Jonathan's Law last September but an amendement to the bill shut off
access to records at the end of the 2007 calendar year.
On Friday, Michael and Lisa Carey
joined with lawmakers, former healthcare workers, and the families
of other disabled people to insist that Governor Spitzer introduce a
program bill to extend access to records for another year.
The Careys believe that all of the
records should be available all of the time.
Michael Carey is also asking
Spitzer to lower the bar on the standards of abuse in New York
State.
"There's less protection for the
disabled children and adults than for animals currently," Carey
says.
The Careys provided FOX23 News with
pictures that show Jonathan with a black eye and swollen nose.
Lisa explains, "After obtaining
Jonathan's records under Jonathan's Law, we found out that the very
same man who killed our son Jonathan was alone with Jonathan the
morning these injuries occurred."
Former O.D. Heck aide Edwin Tirado
is currently serving a five-to-fifteen year prison sentence for
killing Jonathan.
Edward and Connie Hussey of
Brewster, New York were able to use Jonathan's Law last year to get
details about the care their 11-year-old autistic son Joey is
receiving.
"My son is non-verbal," Edward
explains. "He can't read or write. He has no way to communicate if
someone's hurting him."
The Careys say many families had no
idea that they had access late last year to health records belonging
to their loved ones.
Michael and Lisa say the New York
State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
failed to notify many families of the changes until weeks after the
access period had ended.
The Careys tell us the last time
they met with Governor Spitzer was when he signed Jonathan's Law in
September of 2007; they haven't had any luck in their attempts to
meet directly with him since then.
Governor Spitzer's office sent
FOX23 News this statement: "The Governor has met with the Careys
several times, and both he and OMRDD Commissioner [Diana Jones]
Ritter share their goal of ensuring the safety of all clients in
OMRDD facilities."
The Office of Mental Retardation
and Developmental Disabilities did not respond to FOX23's request
for a comment on Friday.
|
