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Jun 24, 2006 3:28 pm US/Central
Reports Show Girl Restrained
Multiple Times
(AP) Eau Claire, Wis.
A 7-year-old girl who suffocated during a control hold at a
northwest Wisconsin counseling center had been similarly
restrained eight other times, according to a state agency.
Angellika Arndt, of Ladysmith, died May 26 at Children's
Hospital & Clinics of Minnesota in Minneapolis, a day after
police were called to the Northwest Counseling and Guidance
Clinic in Rice Lake on a report that she was unresponsive.
Arndt was a patient at the clinic and had been restrained by
staff members for behavioral issues, police said.
Arndt died from complications of chest compression, which caused
lack of air from a restraint hold she was placed in by staff
members, Barron County District Attorney Angela Holmstrom has
said.
The state Department of Health and Family Services investigated
and found that staff restrained Arndt nine times for one to two
hours, according to its report released last week.
She had been put in a hold for "gargling milk" a day before her
death, according the report. Besides the nine holds, the report
said the girl was put in 18 "timeouts" within 31 days.
"There's a lot of things that just don't sit right with me,"
said Rick Pelishek, director of Disability Rights Wisconsin's
northwest chapter office in Rice Lake.
The advocacy group is also investigating and Pelishek said he's
talking to previous doctors and getting records to see if Arndt
really needed to be restrained.
A statement from the president of Northwest Counseling and
Guidance's board of directors, Denison Tucker, said he is
concerned that there are "errors of fact, incomplete context and
misapplications of statute references" in the state's report.
Tucker said center staff will meet with agency next week with
more data and documents.
The agency's investigation is continuing, said Sandy Rowe, the
state department's deputy chief legal counsel.
After the center submits its plan of correction within a month,
Rowe said the state would visit the center and then determine if
the facility should be closed.
The agency has since ordered all control holds stopped at the
center except in extreme emergencies.
No charges against center staff have been filed yet, but
Holmstrom said she has started to review several police reports
about Arndt's death.
She doesn't anticipate making a decision on whether to file
charges until at least mid-July.
The girl, whom friends and family called "Angie," was born in
Milwaukee. She became a ward of the state and was placed in the
Rusk County foster home of Dan and Donna Pavlik in January 2005.
She was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, mood
disorder and attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder,
according to the state's report.
The Pavliks have declined to comment.
(© 2006 The
Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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