Girl, 7, was restrained eight times before death at counseling center

Posted on Sun, Jun. 25, 2006
Girl, 7, was restrained eight times before death at counseling center
ASSOCIATED PRESS

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - A 7-year-old girl who suffocated during a control hold at a Northwestern Wisconsin counseling center had been similarly restrained eight other times, according to a state agency.

Angellika Arndt, of Ladysmith, Wis., 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, Wis., 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.
(snip/...)

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/14899262.htm

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Wisconsin clinic cited for violations in girl's death
A state investigation identified problems at the Rice Lake clinic where a 7-year-old was restrained.
Tom Meersman, Star Tribune
Last update: June 24, 2006 – 11:25 PM

A counseling clinic in Rice Lake, Wis., has been cited in a state report with violations of Wisconsin law in connection with the death of a 7-year-old girl last month. Angellika Arndt lost consciousness after being restrained at the clinic because of behavioral problems on May 25. She died the next day at Children's Hospital of Minneapolis.

An investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services identified several problems at the Northwest Counseling and Guidance Clinic, including violations of physical restraint rules.

Arndt was held on her stomach on the floor in a control hold with her ankles gripped and her shoulders held down, the report said. Soon afterward, she lost consciousness. The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by complications of chest pressure and asphyxia that led to cardiopulmonary arrest.

Stephanie Marquis, a spokeswoman for the department, said Wisconsin law requires that patients be treated in the least restrictive environment. The clinic failed to demonstrate that the girl's behavior posed an imminent danger to herself or others and that the physical hold was justified and necessary, Marquis said.
(snip/...)

http://www.startribune.com/789/story/513617.html

"gargling milk" sin!

Posted on Sat, Jun. 24, 2006email thisprint thisreprint or license this
Girl who died at counseling center was restrained 9 times

~snip~
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.
(snip)<[/blockquote>http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14895173.htm

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More on the child:

Angellika Arndt


~snip~
The Pavlik's say when Angie came into their life a year and half ago she instantly was a part of the family.
They say Angie was a very bright, healthy, and happy girl, who always had a smile.
Dan and Donna felt she was finally in a stable home and was going to the Rice Lake Day treatment center to help her get caught up in school and to work on a few behavior problems.
(snip)

http://www.weau.com/news/headlines/3068986.html

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http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=127934

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Jun 9, 2006 3:08 pm US/Central

Death Of Restrained Girl, 7, Ruled Homicide
(WCCO) Minneapolis The death of a 7-year-old girl who died after being restrained at a treatment center in Rice Lake, Wis., was ruled homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.

Angellika Arndt died May 26 at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Arndt was brought to the hospital after she stopped breathing at the Northwest Counseling and Guidance Clinic in Rice Lake.

The medical examiner said Arndt died from complications from chest compression asphyxiation and said the restraint hold used by the staff at the center may have contributed to her death.

Arndt had been a day patient at the center for about a month. The center is described as a place for people with mental illness so disabling, they cannot function in normal society.

On May 25, Denison Tucker, president of Northwest Counseling, said Arndt was "acting out" in the clinic's kitchen.
(snip/...)

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_160104804.html

In today's W's world, we must all conform, or risk the wrath for being "different". It won't be tolerated.

She was shuffled around from place to place throughout her very few years, apparently. How impersonal and cold the world must have seemed to her.

I have to say, no matter if no one takes it seriously, I would have rather been killed a thousand times as a fetus than to have had to live one hour as this little kid did once she awoke to a world in which there was no home waiting for her, no one watching over her day by day.

This story just kills me.

That tiny face is not the face of a future criminal. Someone could have afforded to treat her with respect. That's all it takes. Children are very open to love.

I'm sorry but no seven year old is strong enough to be put in restraints that could potentially suffocate them, and I've been injured by little kids by neck strikes (I teach karate). Any adult should be to safely restrain any seven-year-old. These people need to be prosecuted.

problems she had and she needed help in the most urgent, professional manner possible.

Did she receive attention a timely. professional manner? It does no appear to be the case. An investigation is in order.

in a residential center wherein she has to be restrained sooomany times...(and what of her parents? was she one of the throw away kids that one so often encounters in places like residential centers?
was so beautiful a child (from looking at her picture) someone who was starved for love?) and what of the caretakers at the residential center? they often are not the brightest kinds of souls, nor are they the kindest of souls. many times they are souls with problems and troubles of their own, and unfinished business of their own, and many times they are not given the kind of training that can deescalate a problem so they engage in a power struggle with kids (or adults if it is in an adult wing that they are working in.) what could possibly have gone so wrong in the life journey of that little girl involves not just the staff who held her till she choked...it also involves all of the people involved in her whole lifetime journey, for they may have been just as deprived of love and tenderness as this little girl seems to have been.

fucking karma.

:cry:

Here is a snip from one of the posted articles:

"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."

How terribly, terribly sad. Nice to see the Foster Parents are very, very concerned and involved in the investigation..

It is a very scary situation, and the parents shouldn't be blamed for making the choice they made. They may have younger children in the home that need protecting.

Sometimes our son is out of control (autistic, ADHHD, Etc) and he is almsot too big for us to manage. But we are trying.

...ultimately what is best for your handicapped child as well, even if that means placement elsewhere. In situations such as yours, all decisions may be painful.

And by all that's holy, I will not judge you.

Hekate

Arndt’s diagnosis included reactive attachment disorder, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, and attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder.

I've got a niece who came to my brother and sister in law no older than three, with a whole slate of problems. Just about all of the above, with asthma and learning disorders thrown in for extra measure. And suspected sexual abuse.

40% of the time, she was the most loving little girl you would ever meet. The other 60 - home terrorizer. Major control issues, and if she couldn't get her way, eventually she'd work herself into an asthma attack. So, she was basically allowed to rule the house. Amazingly, over time, that patience payed off. (We all thought they were crazy to give the girl as much control of their lives as they did.)

It took a few years but her behavior calmed down enough to be mostly tolerable most of the time, and on the day she found out the courts were finally going to allow an adoption to go through (her bio parents fought it tooth and nail) - night and day. Now at 12, even though her learning disabilities virtually guarantee she'll never be a rocket scientist, she's otherwise very bright, emotionally stable and a joy to be around 100% of the time.

...there is NO chest compression whatsoever. PERIOD.

:(

but it's absurd to say a 7 year old never needs to be restrainted. My uncle teaches disturbed kids who have been taken out of the mainstream NYC school system- most of them born addicted to crack or heroin. He teaches 6-9 years olds and routinely comes home with bruises up and down the entire lengths of his arms and legs from students kicking, punching and biting him. What is he supposed to do with a student who is assaulting him (or another student)? Stand there and take it? Blow a whistle?

I'll never forget a program I once watched about kids with fetal alcohol syndrome. There was a six year old who had stabbed his mother with a knife while she was sleeping. She had another kid- a three year old- who was routinely terrorized (as in serious death threats) by her older brother. What would you propose doing with that kid?

In this case, they seem to have gone overboard (by putting pressure on the chest) but I don't agree that it is *never* necessary to restrain kids. Just teaching in a mainstream kindergarten, I witnessed a number of situations where a measure of physical restraint was necessary (breaking up fights or stopping kids determined to crack their skulls open on the playground concrete). And many teachers get *zero* training in how to restrain kids. At least, I never got any.

It's not inconceivable that an emotionally disturbed kid would act out in a way that would require physical restraint for her own protection and for the protection of the other kids. The problem here is the degree and the method of that restraint, not the concept itself.

There are safe ways to hold a kid down until she calms down enough to talk rationally again-I agree that a 7 year old shouldn't be put in any kind of mechanical or leather restraints unless there's a medical reason for doing so. But there are times when a 7 year old has to be held down to keep him or her from hurting others or themselves.

Whenever I've seen teens restrained at residential facilities, it's usually done by staff, not with straps and cuffs and such, and it's until the kid calms down. The kid is always on his or her back. I had a (delinquent) kid get an arm broken once, due to a combination of his fighting the staff hard and the sweat building up on his body causing the staff's hands to slip, but no one was ever choked.

treated it's hard to know where to begin.

IF a child is so disruptive that she requires 8 previous restrainings -- the police or some legal authorities should/ought t be put on notice.

second -- these are little bodies -- and i'm uncomfortable with ''restraining'' period.

anything physical regarding altering negative behavior has the potential to go wrong -- too much potential.

A 7 year old? A 7 year old has that much strength that requires this type of restraint? There were certainly laws violated here.....well this is just very sad.....

but it needs to be done properly because it's all too easy for an adult to hurt the child in the process. I have a family member who deals with children in a similar facility but restraints of any sort are the last resort approach because it doesn't change the behavior. In fact, it is likely to ramp up the child's oppositional behavior. The staff were kicked, punched, slapped, and had their hair pulled and the children were not met with force other than to remove the child from the area to a timeout zone.
It's not easy but with appropriate staffing levels and adequately trained staff these facilities can take care of children without the routine use of forced holds.

Surely that kind of "restraint" is not ever necessary.

I was referring to that kind of restraint.

Assuming that a restraint is indeed necessary, which it is rarely. You never hold shoulders down. The proper way is to put your chest about 10 inches above the kid's back, to leave room for movement. Another staff protects the forehead of the child (they tend to bang their head on the floor). One for the left arm. One or two for the legs. No pressure applied to joints. It takes about 5 to 6 people to handle that without harm. If you ask me, there were not enough staff to deal with this little girl in a non-violent manner. Boils down to money. As usual.

You described it much as I remember my relative describing it, and she emphasized that it rare that they ever need to do so. She quit her job at a different facility because of understaffing and the danger that presented to staff and patients.

is required by law to have the safety training.

Restraint should be used on a child only as a last resort to prevent self injury-- never to protect adults from simple discomfort and expecially never to protect just their dignity, and double never as negative reinforcement for behavior modification. In the latter case it simply doesn't work. The people involved in this sound utterly incompetent.

And so does our son's teacher and Aides. He is nine, is stronger than my mother-in-law already, and almsot stronger than me, and is half our weight. He is autistic and sometimes lashes out very quickly and unpredictably. He sometimes goes after other people's (and children's) eyes, and has sent two kids to the doctor already.

It is a very scary situation, and the parents shouldn't be blamed for making the choice they made. They may have younger children in the home that need protecting.

It is much easier to condemn people when you haven't walked in their shoes.

Clearly, the problem is that the restraint was done improperly, and without adequate monitoring, not that it was done at all.

I'm sorry, but how could a medical professional NOT KNOW a patient was dying!?!? Did they wait for rigor or a release of her bowls before saying, "my gosh, I believe that young girl is dying?" How could you not know the restraint was KILLING her? Sounds like manslaughter to me.

My son has done it before.

But they obviously didn't know what they were doing with the safe hold.

Someone has to pay for that poor girl's death.:-(

I would like to say that I have followed this story closely and I am absolutely appalled at what I have learned. A seven-year old little girl restrained for 1-2 hours, nine times over a month at a 5-day a week day-facility for children with special needs. The Department of Health reported that every time she was placed in this hold, the hold that ultimately would lead to her death, the holds lasted 1-2 hours each.

Which leads to the saddest, the most troubling part of this tragic story. On the day before she died Angie, according to news articles, and according to the Department of Health's report, was placed in such a hold, presumbably lasting 1-2 hours, for "gargling milk!" Most parents, I think, would agree that gargling milk is a normal child behavior, and would not consider it something that was putting the child gargling the milk in danger of harming herself, and of course not in danger of harming others.

It is important to note that the state of Wisconsin reserves the use of such holds for people who are at risk of harming themselves or others. That's it. So how is the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center going to justify using this deadly hold on this little girl for gargling milk?

Angellika "Angie" Arndt was a ward of the state after being born to a homeless family. The first five years of her short life were unstable, and she was moved from place to place. Finally, a foster family took her in as their own and for once, she had the family she only once dreamed of. After finishing kindergarten her social worker decided she should attend the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center, a Wiscounsin counseling center where it was recommended Angie attend 5 days a week for the summer in order to better prepare her for first grade. She did have some anger and aggression issues, and usually reacted by having a temper tantrum. Not unlike a lot of normal, healthy children do - have temper tantrums. Those kids are not usually sent away from home to fix the problem, but this social worker felt it was the best thing to do at the time.

Sadly, that would turn out to be a fatal decision, something she could not have expected. But, having watched a clip of a video, I saw that there was what appeared to be a small time-out room that looked pretty sterile to me, with a mat on the floor and a chair. Nothing else that I recall. I didn't like the looks of the room - there were no cute pictures on the walls for little kids to look at, just a tiny room and all I could visualize were little kids being locked up in there. Now of course I'm not sure if that's what is happening, that was just a perception I had from an outsider looking in and given the reports and circumstances around her death. It would be good to know exactly what goes on in that little room. Maybe more will come out from the Department of Health's report.

In fact, the Department of Health investigated the facility for a month or so and cited 13 violations. They said, among other things, that staff failed to protect the children, that medical services were unavailable to the children.

Medical examiners have ruled her death a homicide. It will take time for a decision on charges to be made.

The parents said it was just like losing their own child. From the first day they met Angie, they were "mom and dad". She loved kisses on the lips at bedtime. She had normal birthday parties at McDonald's, she played like normal kids, she loved her music. Her mom said she was never afraid Angie would hurt herself or anyone else. The clinic has a very different view, saying they were afraid she would hurt herself. Her mom, Donna, said she did not feel if the hold they described was done correctly her little daugther would be dead. This is not fair, said her dad, she had everything going in the right direction. Why this now, she'd been through enough in her little life.

I want to reiterate about the milk-gargling event, something that has upset and shocked so many people. This little girl was actually restrained the day before she died for gargling milk. If the facility knows they are only allowed to use the type of hold that was used on Angie if they believed she was going to harm herself or others, how can they justify restraining her for gargling milk? I don't think they will be able to come up with any good, viable reason. It will be interesting to see how things unfold.

My hope is for this story to get not only national attention but international attention. These holds/restraints must stop, too many children are dying. Please visit my website, where you will find more information about Angie, about restraints, about deaths, and more. Here is the link to the website and to relevant information.

www.caica.org.
http://caica.org/DEATHS%20Angie%20Main%20Page.htm
http://caica.org/Abuse%20in%20Mental%20Health%20Facilities%20MAIN.htm
http://caica.org/NEWS%20Deaths%20Main.htm
http://caica.org/RESTRAINTS%20Death%20List.htm
http://caica.org/RESTRAINTS%20Death%20List.htm
http://caica.org/Parents%20Helping%20Parents.htm

Have seen the news clip, thanks for posting it here, will return to read the background you've thoughtfully posted, as well.

They'll find a way to rationalize it to themselves and will probably go forward with a nonchalance this case really doesn't deserve. I would DESPISE myself for having been part of the arrangement which snuffed out her brief life simply because no one was willing to invest the time and caring needed to overcome these fixable problems.

It's good to know there were a lot of people in the area who, at least, appear to have cared about this tragic mistake.

"oh...she calmed down this time"