Parents file suit: Agency cleared psychiatric hospital despite autistic boy's deep cuts, dehydration.

An extensive article detailing neglect in a psychiatric hosptial, as reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A truly horrifying case.

The ambulance crew found Vince Allen on the hospital floor, curled into a fetal position, languishing in a soiled diaper. The 15-year-old, an ambulance technician later wrote, was covered with open wounds from "severe body mutilation."

When the technician asked what happened during Allen's 12-day stay at the state psychiatric hospital in Atlanta, a nurse said, "Well ...," and shrugged.

At Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital, where the ambulance crew took Allen for treatment, a physician described Allen as "emaciated." He was dehydrated. His kidneys had failed. Bruises and cuts covered his head, his chest, his abdomen, his legs, his neck, his buttocks. Several wounds, doctors wrote, were "superinfected" —- so badly, they had to be drained surgically.

Deep, black-crusted wounds and inflamed scratches ran across his body, photographs taken at Hughes Spalding shortly after Allen's admission in January 2006 show. Even his teeth were caked with blood.

The agency that operates the state's seven psychiatric hospitals twice documented Allen's precipitous decline. Yet, in separate investigations, it cleared employees at Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta of wrongdoing.

"Unsubstantiated," the agency concluded about allegations of neglect and abuse. "Lack of sufficient evidence."

The injuries to Allen, who is autistic, required 36 days of treatment at Hughes Spalding. Last week his parents sued the agency, the state Department of Human Resources, claiming the boy was "neglected and mistreated to the point of death" at Georgia Regional.

What happened to Allen at Georgia Regional reflects a pattern of poor medical care at the state hospitals. An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that at least 115 patients died under suspicious circumstances and that authorities substantiated almost 200 cases of patient abuse from 2002 through 2006. As many as 21 more questionable deaths occurred in 2007, the newspaper recently reported.

A state-funded study recently questioned the quality of care in the chronically overcrowded and understaffed facilities and recommended more hiring, better pay and closer attention to medical treatment.

What happened after Allen left Georgia Regional illustrates another persistent failing in the state hospitals: deficient investigations into alleged maltreatment or abuse. The Journal-Constitution's review of hundreds of cases found that officials rarely call in police or other outside agencies and often dismiss complaints before compiling all pertinent information.

In Allen's case, the investigator relied only on Georgia Regional's employees and files. The investigator did not examine records from Hughes Spalding or interview doctors there. Her report makes no mention of the photos of Allen's injuries.

A DHR spokeswoman, Dena Smith, declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit and privacy regulations.

The lawsuit, Allen's medical file and other documents depict grim conditions in the state hospital.

Allen, who is virtually mute, was bathed just twice at Georgia Regional. He never brushed his teeth. His arms and head unrestrained, he scratched and gouged and bit himself over and over. Open sores went untended. When a child protective caseworker visited, Allen was lying half-naked on the floor.

He looked, the caseworker wrote later, as if he had been "whipped."

There is much more at the link