One mom's struggle to keep her son alive in the state's care highlights the challenges of supporting the developmentally disabled

She died at the hospital.

Solomon's parents had not been told by the group home provider about Cash's past disciplinary problems. The Solomons sued the provider, the state, DDD, and its parent agency, the Department of Economic Security.

In 2004, a jury awarded them $45.5 million after finding the defendants guilty of abuse and neglect, wrongful death, negligent hiring, training and supervision, negligent misrepresentation, and fraud.

The state of Arizona is appealing. DDD and the state of Arizona will not comment on pending litigation or say whether Solomon's death prompted policy change.

More recently, court documents obtained by New Times detail the gruesome deaths of two men in Arizona group homes in 2007.

One of the men suffered from "moderate mental retardation," uncontrolled movements, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and seizures. He required one-on-one supervision and was never to walk without assistance. Group home staffers were supposed to make sure he wore a helmet, wore a gait belt to help prevent back injury, and used a walker at all times when trying to walk. The man had the mental function of a 3-year-old.

In July 2007, he attempted to get up from bed one night and fell, hitting his head in the hallway outside his bedroom. A group home employee heard the fall and helped him to the bathroom, asking if he was all right.

"Fall," was his reply. The employee put him back to bed.

The next morning, the man did not wake up. The first thing the employee saw when she entered the room was blood. Instead of immediately calling 911, the employee called the home's on-call service to "verify that [name redacted] was not playing a game and pretending to be asleep."

After 911 was called, the man was taken to the hospital. He had suffered several hematomas, a fractured skull, and a brain hemorrhage. He died a few days later.

In June, a 51-year-old man with "several cognitive impairments" choked to death on a burrito in his group home in the presence of his attendant. The man was unable to speak, required constant one-on-one attention, and had a history of choking on food.

The day he died, his food had not been properly cut into small pieces. During his meal, according to the police report, he got up and went to the bathroom, where he "urinated all over himself." He was walking unsteadily, so his attendant helped him back to the table. He then defecated in his pants and began to gurgle. After his attendant realized he was choking, she hit him on the back to dislodge the food but did not administer the Heimlich maneuver.

He died on the scene.

Craig Knapp, the Phoenix personal-injury lawyer handling the three cases, says the problem stems from inadequate training, which has been systemically ignored by DDD. Without specific state-mandated training standards, more people will die, Knapp says.

"I've seen staff who are literally hired off being landscapers. I know one case where he was a landscaper and his next job was working in a group home," he says. "No experience at all with developmentally disabled people, straight from pushing a lawn mower."

For the Bolenders, life in Arizona was difficult from the start. Drew's health was declining steadily, and the family had to wait three months just to qualify in Arizona's system.

It was a tough three months — Drew endured nine trips to the ER and one neurosurgery. On top of that, BJ was footing the $1,000-a-month bill for his medicine.

After nine months, Drew entered his first group home.

There were problems, many of which stemmed from an unqualified staff. His group home caretakers did not follow Drew's behavior-treatment plan, devised by his doctors. It's a simple plan — essentially charting behavior with rewards for consistent good behavior — but the group home claimed it didn't have the training to follow it.

His brother Cameron, who owns a catering business and now shares guardianship of Drew with his mother, says it was hard to get the staff of the home to view Drew as a person.

"We had a behavior-treatment plan in place, which is something the doctors say has to be in place to manage his behavior," he says. "It's the same as if you were a diabetic and you need insulin, and they just would not do it. It was always incumbent on us."

The Bolenders began to feel as though asking DDD for help was useless.