MOBILE, ALABAMA--The president of a pro-institution group is suing the state
and former employees of the facility where her daughter suffered an attack
by poisonous fire ants. The suit, filed on behalf of Betty Lyons, alleges
neglect and claims that official documents were changed to cover up
employees' actions. She is asking for more than $15 million in damages.
On Sunday, August 20, Lyon's 36-year-old daughter Sheri Renee Herring was
rushed to the hospital after, as one doctor described it, being bitten by
fire ants "so many times that the bites were too numerous to count". She was
released from the hospital within the hour, and is still recovering from the
bites.
At the time of the attack, Herring -- who has Rett syndrome and is not able
to move her limbs, call for help, or even scream -- was a resident at Albert
P. Brewer Developmental Center, an institution housing 187 people with
developmental disabilities.
Herring had been discovered in her bed covered from head to toe with the
poisonous insects at about 5:30 a.m. Officials said she was alright when she
was checked at 10:00 Saturday evening, but that the worker who looked in on
her at 3:00 Sunday morning only opened her door to glance into the room.
Shortly after the incident, Lyons publicly defended the institution. As
president of the Friends of Brewer, a group made up of residents' parents,
Lyons said she was not angry and that she believed officials were correcting
any of the problems which may have caused the ant attack or allowed it to be
overlooked.
But a few weeks following the attack, the Department of Public Health
released a scathing report which found that over a period of several months
supervisors at Brewer Center repeatedly failed to take action after workers
reported numerous incidents of ants in the beds and on the bodies of
residents.
"I hold them responsible," Lyons told the Mobile Register in response to the
report in October. "They knew about this, and they should have done
something."
Lyon's attorney filed the suit last Friday, naming as defendants the Alabama
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and some former Brewer
Center employees. The suit claims administrators knew the facility was
infested and did not properly get rid of the poisonous insects, that
residents were not checked on as often as ordered, and that records were
altered to protect staff members.
Brewer Center was closed this February and its residents moved to other
facilities and homes in the community after 14 of its 15 buildings were
found to have had structural problems that endangered the health and safety
of the residents. The facility remains closed -- although officially on a
temporary basis -- while its fate is decided.
Articles about Brewer Center and specifically this incident are available at
this Inclusion Daily Express web page:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/institutions/alabama.htm
Back to home page
