Lawmakers say Justice admin canceled meeting to discuss man’s gruesome death in state hospital

A state health facilities official was scheduled to appear before West Virginia lawmakers on Tuesday to answer expected questions about an elderly, nonverbal man who died after being left in scalding water at a long-term care facility. 

The meeting was canceled due to, according to lawmakers, interference from the executive branch under Gov. Jim Justice.

Lawmakers were also scheduled to hear about a required plan for improving the state’s troubled psychiatric facilities. 

Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, West Virginia Watch learned that plan has not been completed despite a December 2023 deadline. 

Disability Rights West Virginia Legal Director Mike Folio was also scheduled to speak at the meeting. 

“This is a cover up. Plain and simple,” he said. “It’s apparent that the governor and the Department of Health Facilities is trying to conceal information that would allow the Legislature to do their job — to ensure patients are safe and aren’t abused and patients do not die.”

Ann Ali, communications director for the House of Delegates, said that the House Speaker’s Office was asked Monday afternoon to cancel the meeting “because not all the scheduled presenters could participate.”

She continued, “The executive branch would be your source to explain the reasons and details why.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, minority chair of the House Health Committee, said, “The administration must have made the call to cancel the meeting … It’s incredibly sad they chose not to hold this meeting and have the secretary there to answer questions.”

Ali added that, “House Health Chair Amy Summers, R-Taylor, and Vice Chair Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, both expressed disappointment and displeasure that the serious and timely discussions planned for today to exercise the Legislature’s oversight and accountability of the Executive’s health departments will not take place.”

Spokespeople for the governor’s office and the state Department of Health Facilities did not respond by deadline for this story. 

The agenda for a meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability included hearing from John Pritt, a representative with Hopemont Hospital, a long-term care facility operated by the state. It is where an elderly man died in January after being left unattended in extremely hot water.

Disability Rights West Virginia, which investigated the patient’s death, said that the nonverbal man was unable to scream out in pain while being left in 134-degree water for at least 47 minutes. The story received national media attention. 

Pushkin, who serves on the commission, said what happened to the patient was “horrific.”

“A patient was boiled alive. We, the representatives of the people, deserve answers,” he said. “Patients at Hopemont … many of them, there’s absolutely no one to take care of them. If the Legislature doesn’t have the ability to speak up for them, I’m not sure who will.”

DHF Secretary Michael Caruso was expected to speak about “a long-term sustainability report” on seven state-operated facilities, which serve individuals with disabilities and elderly patients. 

According to a 2023 bill that created DHF,  the report was due before lawmakers Dec. 1, 2023.

A FOIA request to the House revealed no copy of the report.

DHF spokesperson Annie Moore confirmed that the report was incomplete and still in progress. 

She explained the missed deadline in an email with, “Restructuring the DHF and the state’s seven healthcare facilities is a complex and critically important endeavor that cannot be undertaken in haste.” 

She added that the department is working on financial stewardship of the facilities. 

“ … The DHF continues to work diligently on this project …. The [department] has updated the legislature regularly on how this plan is ongoing,” Moore continued. 

Folio said the report’s absence was indicative of a lack of planning and care for people in facilities in top-level government. 

“The fact that LOCHHRA had this meeting canceled under duress underscores one of my main points: there needs to be a cultural change. [They’re] about protecting jobs and making sure elected officials and department leaders don’t have bad press,” Folio said. 

Caruso was also expected to speak on background checks for contract nurses employed at state facilities. Last year, multiple contract employees at William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Weston were arrested for crimes. The hospital serves people with disabilities. 

Additionally, contract staff were fired after the elderly man’s death at Hopemont. 

Lawmakers can in some circumstances subpoena state officials. Summers acknowledged it was an option if DHF ignores multiple requests for presentations.

Tully sent a letter to Justice on Tuesday requesting that the governor add a bill to the call for the special session that would permit certain lawmakers to discuss “critical incidents,” like the death at Hopemont, behind closed doors with state officials. The bill passed the House during the regular session but failed to be taken up for consideration in the Senate by deadline.

“To be perfectly straightforward, it is very disturbing as a legislator to learn of detrimental incidents within the district that you are tasked with representing only to receive some scant amount of information from the [health department],” she wrote. “It is far beyond time for us to promote transparency within and among our governmental agencies.”