he family of a woman who choked to death in a state-licensed Rolling Meadows group home is filing suit claiming that its operators failed to protect the 34-year-old, disabled woman.
The wrongful death suit alleges that Emily Kasanga, who was developmentally disabled and suffered from a swallowing disorder, was allowed to eat a meal without supervision even though her care plan demanded that her food be cut into small pieces, and that at least two people be with her while she ate.
“None of that was done,” said Margaret Battersby Black, the family’s attorney. “Emily was given her lunch and allowed to eat it unsupervised in the living room while the one staff member who was attending to those residents was busy elsewhere.”
Even more concerning, Battersby Black said, is that when Emily was found choking, the care giver did not administer the Heimlich maneuver. Instead, she allegedly turned to other disabled residents in the home for help. That caregiver is also named in the lawsuit.
The group home is run by the Arlington Heights-based nonprofit Clearbrook, which has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
It is a community integrated living arrangement, or CLIA, in which a group of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities reside together.
Kasanga’s family members want the state of Illinois to better supervise CLIA’s like the Clearbrook facility in Rolling Meadows where their daughter died.
“The only thing I want to know is what happened to her. Nobody has told me what happened,” said Emily’s mother Doreen Bartholomae. “I need to know, my family needs to know exactly what happened to her. How she died. We need answers.”
Kasanga lived in the Rolling Meadows CLIA for 13 years. Her family said it had filed complaints over that time about hygiene, missing clothing and bullying by other residents. Those complaints are being investigated by the Illinois Office of the Inspector General, but Kasanga’s family said they were never addressed.
“We need answers and we need accountability for us to put some kind of closure to this,” said Emily’s father, Thomas Kasanga.
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