The Tribute to Paige

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

I had planned to close this blog with a bio of each child or adult identified as dying while in Bellwether's care. When a hedge fund buys a for-profit mental health system, it inherits it's debts, losses, and deaths. The stain transfers one owner to another, although that does not exculpate Ken Mazik's role in the nightmare conditions of the beast he created and from which enriched himself.

Prince Jon was the first known death.

Paige Elizabeth Lunsford
Florida, July 6, 2013

On July 6, 2013, Paige Elizabeth Lunsford died while in the care of Carlton Palms. The story of her death would be recounted in the press multiple times. It was her death that might have put the wheels of closure in motion.

In the days prior to her death, Paige Lunsford vomited "like a waterfall" according to a supervisor at Carlton Palms where the 14 year old with autism resided.

Yet, Paige didn't receive proper medical care or the potentially live saving trek to the Emergency Room at her nearest hospital until she was dead. Her official cause of death was medical neglect and inadequate supervision. That's are far cry from what her death entailed.

"For five days and five nights, Paige Elizabeth Lunsford... wretched like a waterfall, could not eat, and thrashed about in an educational facility staffed with teachers, nurses, and doctors."

Paige's condition was not improving, yet no one called for help. Instead the young teen was placed in restraints, they bound her wrists, ankles, biceps, and waist to try to control her thrashing. Ten days after Paige was admitted she died of a high fever. The coroner noted that she was severely dehydrated due to an infection - a condition that could have been treated and did not need to end in death. Where was the nurse? Where was the doctor? Why did no one come to Paige's aid as the young girl was strapped into a her death bed? Why did her parents not know how sick she was? They'd delivered a health teen just 10 days prior and Paige was a minor!

At 7 am, July 6th, 2013, Paige's suffering came to an end

when she went into full cardiac arrest.

Paige's death became the 140th complaint lodged against Carlton Palms and it's owner AdvoServ in Florida. The investigation into her death found that all but one hour of video surveillance of the child's final day was accidentally deleted. What detectives did see in that one hour was mundane and unremarkable. Paige herself was known to be self injurious. She came to the Palms with a helmet, special arm splints and special clothing to help keep the child from excessively scratching herself. Her medical records notes that her behavior would escalate if she was sick or in pain. When that happened, staff put her restraints although Florida had very strict laws regarding restraints. The protocol for approving restraints for Paige was never initiated. The staff did so without the required guidance and supervision of a nurse and/or doctor. On her final night, she was so ill that she vomited 25-30 times. Medical staff had been contacted multiple times. Yet, no clinician came to check on Paige. And the staffers, in their infinite knowledge, thought Paige might actually be faking her condition - so they took it upon themselves to restrain her to test their theory. Who killed Paige? The whole damn lot of them.

Tomorrow, Paige's family will mourn their lost child for the fifth year. We did not reach out to the Lunsfords out of respect for their privacy.

Paige's family members are welcome to contact Echo.