The death of an extremely malnourished girl with cerebral palsy has led the Ohio Medicaid office to take action against the two agencies involved in her care. The coroner’s office, reporting on her death, said she was the worst case of child malnourishment it had ever seen.
Ohio Medicaid is proposing the removal of Exclusive Home Care Services in Dayton from the Medicaid program and has decided to not extend the state contract with Cincinnati-based CareStar Inc., according to state Medicaid Director John McCarthy.
“The death of Makayla Norman was a horrible tragedy, and the allegations in this case are extremely disturbing,” McCarthy said.
The 14-year-old girl was dependent on others for her care. When she died, she weighed only 28 pounds and was covered with bedsores and caked in dirt, authorities said. The coroner’s office said she died of nutritional and medical neglect complicated by her chronic condition.
Authorities have indicted the girl’s mother and three nurses on criminal charges in her death.
It is only right that Medicaid remove funding from the two organizations involved in this poor girl’s death. It will take investigation to determine how the three nurses, whose job it was to take care of Norman, allowed her to waste away so tragically.
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP – cerebral palsy attorneys
