About Andrew Van Dam
Andrew Van Dam of The Wall Street Journal previously worked at the AHCJ offices while earning his master’s degree at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Bloomberg’s David Armstrong has assembled an investigation of a huge Florida center for brain injury rehabilitation with a record of serious patient abuse, and the system which has allowed it to keep running for so long.
Armstrong talked with 20 current and former patients and their families, examined criminal and civil cases, and went through “over 2,000 pages of court and medical records, police reports, state investigations and autopsies.”
Patients’ families or state agencies have alleged abuse or care lapses in at least five residents’ deaths since 1998, two of them in the last 18 months. Three former employees face criminal charges of abusing FINR patients – one of whom was allegedly hit repeatedly for two hours in a TV room last September.
But before you get lost deep in the details of Armstrong’s report, take a minute to appreciate his deft aggregation of scores of disparate resources through convenient hyperlinks and attachments. His entire work is truly integrated with the Web in way that, even today, few investigations are. Just as importantly, it’s tied to the bigger picture and what this scandal shows about extended care for Americans with brain injuries.
The complaints underscore the problems that 5.3 million brain-injured Americans are having finding adequate care. Their numbers are growing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as better emergency medicine and vehicle safety mean that fewer die from traffic accidents, bullet wounds and other causes of traumatic brain injuries.
The long-term ills range from memory loss and physical handicaps to the inability to control violent anger or sexual aggression. Yet because insurance benefits for rehabilitation are scarce, less than half of those who need it receive it, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
Andrew Van Dam of The Wall Street Journal previously worked at the AHCJ offices while earning his master’s degree at the Missouri School of Journalism.
