Thursday, 4:30 PM
Romney panel blasts 'systemic failure' in Haleigh Poutre case
By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff
In a withering indictment of how the state cares for some of its most vulnerable children, a panel of specialists appointed by Gov. Mitt Romney said today that Haleigh Poutre was victimized by a systemic failure by both the state Department of Social Services and the medical and mental health community.
The girl, who turned 12 last month, was brought badly beaten to a Westfield hospital last September. DSS has acknowledged missing signs of repeated abuse, partly because case workers believed Haleigh was hurting herself.
But the panel concluded that what happened to Haleigh "should not have happened, and did not have to happen. "Haleigh's case highlights a frightening confluence of a health care system ignorant of abuse and a child protective system ignorant of medicine," the panel said.
The three-member panel also said DSS procedures are "substantially insufficient" to decide whether to withdraw life support from children in the agency's custody. DSS went all the way to the Supreme Judicial Court to withdraw life support from Haleigh, who was in a vegetative state. The agency pulled back the day after the high court gave its permission and said she was showing signs of improvement. DSS eventually put her in a Brighton rehabilitation hospital.
The panel recommended, among other things, making sure DSS has access to more medical, psychiatric and child abuse expertise and creating a new process for DSS to weigh life-and-death decisions.
Romney said he will work to implement the recommendations. "As the Haleigh Poutre case demonstrates, errors in human judgment occur," he said in a statement. "What is unusual is how many people involved in Haleigh's care -- medical professionals, case workers and administrators from many disciplines -- made errors."