Questions raised over teen's death at facilityEmployees' lack of first aid knowledge may have contributedBy TERRI LANGFORD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 21, 2010, 10:24AMJust eight weeks before a 17-year-old Houston foster child died in intensive care after collapsing from heat exhaustion during a nature walk in 90-degree temperatures, another teen from the same facility was hospitalized for an untreated staph infection in the knee.
A month earlier, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services officials found at least seven employees at the Five Oaks Achievement Center, a residential treatment facility 72 miles west of Houston, were lacking in first aid and CPR certification.
State investigators now are looking into whether Five Oaks staff's lack of first aid knowledge or other factors played a part in last week's death of Shanice Shamika Nibbs.
Her death comes two months after the Houston Chronicle and Texas Tribune reported details of 250 confirmed abuse incidents that occurred in RTCs, where the state's foster children with developmental and emotional problems are placed.
Spent weeks in ICUNibbs languished for weeks in intensive care before dying from "complications of hyperthermia" after her July 16 collapse. DFPS, the agency responsible for both the care of the abused children and the facilities it licenses, insists Five Oaks, the RTC where Nibbs and at least 22 other foster care children lived, is safe.
It has, however, stopped placing children at Five Oaks as it investigates Nibbs' death.
"The children there have an established relationship with their caregivers," said Patrick Crimmins, DFPS spokesman. "Each child was interviewed after the July 16 incident involving Shanice. From those interviews with the children, and from our intense and ongoing discussions with the facility operators, we feel those children are very safe."
DFPS visits since 2008 show that Five Oaks, one of the state's 79 RTCs, has had some difficulty managing routine health and child discipline tasks. The facility declined to answer questions about its history that included:
On June 24, DFPS found a child's paperwork indicated no allergies, though medical records indicated otherwise.
On June 16, the 14-year-girl was hospitalized for a staph infection left untreated for a month.
On April 24, overnight staff members were found by DFPS not to have proper training to supervise children, and staff records indicated seven employees did not have current certification in first aid and CPR.
On March 8, six out of eight residents informed DFPS staff that Five Oaks employees had relied on restraints or "emergency behavior intervention" to get them to do as requested. Because this is a facility for the most difficult foster children, it is not known if these restraints were correctly applied or not.
On May 1, 2009, five Five Oaks children told DFPS staff that they were required to make their beds before they had access to the bathrooms in the morning. State-contracted facilities are not allowed to use food, sleep or access to toilets as a way to get a child to comply.
Attended Alvin HighThe Chronicle's attempts to reach Nibbs' family were unsuccessful.
A memorial site for Nibbs on the Internet revealed she attended Alvin High School for a brief period.
The agency confirmed that Nibbs first came into foster care in Houston when she was just 6 years old in November 1999. From then until her death, she was placed in at least a dozen homes before coming to Five Oaks in February after eight months at a psychiatric facility.
Calls to a lawyer who represented Nibbs in CPS court proceedings were not returned.
Still unknown is exactly what time Nibbs began feeling ill from the heat. The first call to the Austin County Sheriff's Office from the facility came at 2:58 p.m. on July 16.
Temperatures at noon on that day reached 93 degrees. It also is unclear whether the call came from Five Oaks immediately or after first aid failed to revive Nibbs.
Little information givenNeither the state nor the facility will say exactly how many staffers were on the "nature walk," how long it was or what kind of hydration was available to the girls.
"Five Oaks Achievement Center has experienced a loss that we are deeply saddened by," said Randall Bryant, the facility's chief executive in a prepared statement regarding the facility's only child death. "Due to federal and state laws regarding privacy and confidentiality, Five Oaks Achievement Center is prohibited from disclosing information regarding its residents."
A mental health professional, who asked that her name not be disclosed, said Nibbs enjoyed rap music and was often seen singing and dancing to songs she knew or those she had written herself.
"I am hopeful that the sad circumstances of her death will result, in the least, in the world seeing a portrait of the compassionate young girl inside her that so few people had the opportunity to know," she said.
terri.langford@chron.comCopyright © 2010 The Houston Chronicle
