How Could You? Hall of Shame-Elizabeth Holder case-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Clearwater, Florida, 5-year-old foster child Elizabeth Holder died on January 19, 2013. She had been in state care for just 8 days.

“Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Thursday that his office, which handles child protective services in Pinellas, failed to get a medical screening for five-year-old Elizabeth Holder within 72 hours of investigators removing her from her home, as is required by law. Holder died a little more than a week later.

“We were required to do it. We should have done it,” he said. “It’s inexcusable and it’s not going to happen again.”

Holder collapsed and died Jan. 19 while watching TV in the care a babysitter, the sheriff said.

“She grabbed her head and as she grabbed her head, she began to scream ‘It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Somebody stop! Somebody Stop!” Gualtieri said at a news conference Thursday. “The next thing that happed is Elizabeth went limp and she went into cardiac arrest.”

Investigators are still waiting for a medical examiner’s report, but Gualtieri said it appears she died of a medical incident. There were no signs of trauma and neither the foster family nor the babysitter are at fault, Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri said in addition to an internal investigation, the sheriff’s office is reviewing policies and procedures. He also said the office will contract with a pediatrician’s office to ensure family support workers can get timely appointments for children who need them.

An employee did make an appointment for Holder, but it was scheduled for Jan. 22. Holder died Jan. 19.

Holder and her younger sister were removed from their home in the Gulf to Bay mobile home park in Clearwater on Jan. 11 after deputies responded to a report of the five-year-old wandering around by herself.

The sheriff’s office said the children’s mother, Stephanie Judah, was under the influence of prescription drugs and the home was “unkept and unsuitable for the well being of the child.” Judah was arrested and charged with child neglect.

No one answered the door at the family’s Clearwater home on Thursday.”

Pinellas Sheriff orders investigation after girl’s death

[WFLA 1/24/13]

“Denette Allali takes comfort in playing with her granddaughter, Kayla.

She says Kayla keeps her going after the death of her older granddaughter, 5-year-old Elizabeth.
“I loved her, her sister loved her and now she’s in Heaven with her great grandma wrapped her hands around her and she’s being loved,” said Allali.
Denette says it breaks her heart Kayla will never know her sister. After Elizabeth died in foster care, the grandmother says she now has custody of Kayla.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office admits wrongdoing in handling Elizabeth’s case, saying the child should have had a health screening within 72 hours of being removed from her parents’ Clearwater home. But that never happened.
The girls’ grandmother says she tried getting custody when the mother was arrested and accused of child neglect. She says she couldn’t because she lived with her boyfriend who didn’t agree to take the girls in.
“They had to have his permission to allow the children in and if I owned it and it was my place, I could’ve just brought them in.” said Allali.
Denette says she is now living with a friend who agreed to take Kayla in. She says she wasn’t aware of any health problems Elizabeth was having when she died.
The Sheriff’s Office says preliminary reports showed no signs of abuse or physical injury.
Autopsy results could take up to 90 days.

The Sheriff said it’s not known if the death of the child could have been prevented with the screening, but a review of policies and procedures surrounding child removal is underway.”

Grandmother wanted custody of child who died in foster care

[Bay News 9 1/25/13 by Melissa Eichmann]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “A 5-year-old girl who died mysteriously in January, days after being placed into foster care, suffered from a heart condition.

An autopsy completed this week found that Elizabeth Holder died Jan. 19 of endomyocardial fibrosis, aggravated by a severe case of tonsillitis.

“She wouldn’t have known that she had the endomyocardial fibrosis,” which is marked by a change in heart tissue and generally caused by previous viral infections, said Bill Pellan, director of investigations at the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office.

Eight days before she died, Pinellas deputies had placed Elizabeth and her 2-year-old sister into foster care after their mother was charged with neglect.

Although initial reports indicated a medical event prompted the girl’s death, an investigation revealed sheriff’s employees broke a state rule requiring that children placed in foster care get a medical screening within 72 hours.

Elizabeth never got a screening.

Elizabeth’s heart condition likely would not have been picked up by a casual health screening, officials told the Tampa Bay Times on Friday. Tonsillitis, however, might have been detected.

“That event of the tonsillitis would have caused the heart to go into some type of arrhythmia,” Pellan said Friday. “That would have triggered a cardiac event because she had the underlying disease. That’s the most probable chain of events.”

Pellan said investigators were not able to determine how long Elizabeth had the disease or the tonsillitis, a common condition in children.

Pinellas authorities said the girl never complained of being sick while in foster care. Tonsillitis symptoms can include fever and sore throat.

Authorities said they could not say if the outcome would have been different if Elizabeth’s tonsillitis had been discovered.

The girl was taken from her parents’ care on Jan. 11 after a neighbor saw her wandering unattended at the Gulf to Bay Mobile Home Park near Clearwater.

Pinellas deputies said Elizabeth’s mother and father were high on prescription pills at the time.

Eight days after the children were placed in foster case, they were at a babysitter’s in Dunedin when Elizabeth began clutching her head.

“She began to scream, ‘It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!'” Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told reporters at a news conference shortly after the girl’s death.

Elizabeth went limp and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“I hope that the fact that (the screening) did not happen did not make a difference,” Gualtieri said Friday. “To me it doesn’t matter. Even if there was no causation we were still wrong. I take responsibility for that. We should have done it, and we own it.”

Gualtieri launched an internal investigation after it became clear his agency had violated the three-day rule. A family support worker at the agency, which handles child protection investigations in Pinellas County, tried to get the children a health screening but made the doctor’s appointments for Jan. 22 and Jan. 24 after offices said they were booked solid before then.

Gualtieri said the internal review was still ongoing, but that the department already made policy changes.

“We’ve expanded the network of the providers we can take the kids to,” Gualtieri said,

The state Department of Children and Families’ investigation is not yet complete, spokeswoman Terri Durdaller said Friday.

Elizabeth’s family could not be reached for comment.

After the girl died, her grandmother said she believed the girl suffered a brain aneurysm based on hospital staff statements.

Nothing suggestive of an aneurysm was found in the autopsy.”

Report: Foster child’s death in January attributed to heart condition

[Tampa Bay Times 5/3/13 by Kameel Stanley]

Update 2: “The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is changing its procedures to ensure that children who are removed from their home receive a mandatory health screening within three days.

The changes stem from an investigation into the Jan. 19 death of a 5-year-old girl placed into foster care that revealed major pitfalls in the system — including division of responsibility, imprecise language in agreements and difficulty booking appointments with desired doctors in a timely manner.

“It’s a system failure,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference Friday. “I’m troubled by it, and it’s something that didn’t come to light until this happened.”

Of the 884 children removed from their homes by the sheriff’s Child Protection Investigation Division last year, 198, or 22 percent, did not get a medical examination within the legally required 72-hour period. In 238 of the cases, records were too incomplete to determine whether the child received a required medical screening.

In all, nearly half the children didn’t or may not have received timely medical screening.

To make sure there’s no longer any confusion about who ensures that the child gets a timely examination, the Sheriff’s Office has given the task to family support workers who are part of the child protection division.

Additionally, the Sheriff’s Office is establishing thorough reporting and supervising procedures and has already expanded the network of medical providers available to see the children.

Family support workers will attend 40 hours of training to make sure they understand the requirements.

The case that wrought these changes involved 5-year-old Elizabeth Holder, who, along with her 2-year-old sister, was placed in foster care after their mother was charged with neglect.

Elizabeth died after a day of playing when she clutched her head and screamed, “It hurts!” and then lost consciousness.

An immediate investigation revealed that Elizabeth did not receive a medical screening within the required 72-hour time frame.

In May, the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office released a report saying that Elizabeth died of a heart condition called endomyocardial fibrosis, aggravated by a severe case of tonsillitis.

Officials said Elizabeth’s heart condition likely would not have been picked up by a casual health screening. Authorities said they could not say if the outcome would have been different if Elizabeth’s tonsillitis had been discovered.

Elizabeth’s father, Corey Holder, has filed a legal claim against the county, which is a required precursor to a lawsuit, Gualtieri said. He declined to comment further.

The investigation also prompted Gualtieri to fire family support worker Pamela Wilson, ending a 30-year career. Gualtieri said Wilson was fired because she lied about her actions and had a significant disciplinary history with the department, not because she did not comply with the 72-hour rule in Elizabeth’s case.”

Girl’s death prompts changes to screening procedure in Pinellas

[Tampa Bay Times 8/16/13 by Kameel Stanley]