ARLINGTON, Texas — The call came to Lisa Smith at 2:30 a.m. last September.
“Is he breathing?” she asked.
“No,” the person on the other line responded.
In those predawn hours, they learned their 25-year-old autistic son had died in an Arlington group home.
Seven months earlier, Karen and Teddy Robinson would also get a call. Visitors to the home their son, Joshua, lived in called to notify them that he’d been taken to the hospital. Doctors would tell them there was little they could do. He died a few days later.
“If you put your loved one in a place like this, you expect them to be taken care of,” said Joshua’s stepmother, Karen Robinson.
Joshua and Conner lived seven miles from each other in homes operated by the same company, EduCare Community Living Corp. – part of a network of homes across the United States.
The state worker who investigated their deaths told WFAA that she believes that EduCare’s caretakers and medical staff didn’t pay attention to Joshua and Conner’s dire medical needs and that it led to their deaths.
“If I had a person in there, I'd be afraid for them,” said Terry LaFon, a registered nurse with 30 years of experience.
Joshua and Conner never met, but their lives took similar paths.
Both died of similar causes. They both had autism. And as they got older, their families realized they could no longer care for them.
“We didn't ever intend to put him in a group home. But when he became so destructive and aggressive, we were calling the cops every week,” Conner’s father, Bart Smith, said.
Joshua Robinson
Doctors diagnosed Joshua as autistic as a small child. Joshua never spoke and required constant supervision, the family said.
In March 2022, Joshua got very sick. But records show his caretakers didn’t call 911.
Visitors told WFAA and state investigators they came to the group home and found Joshua in a wheelchair, slumped over, leaning up against a wall and looking emaciated.
“I walked over and his abdomen -- it was distended, and he looked nine months pregnant,” said Kay Ray-Smith, a former emergency medical technician. “He was pale, and he was semi-conscious.”
She and her husband, Brad Smith, questioned Joshua’s caretakers.
“How long has it been like this?” she asked the caretakers.
“At least a week or more,” Smith recalled the caretaker telling him.
“Then she started filling me in on how things were going there and that they would get in trouble if they called an ambulance,” Kay Smith said. “They had to call the nurse first and then they had to call the doctor.”
Kay Smith told the caretaker he needed immediate medical help. Her husband went next door to a fire station and got help. Paramedics took him to the hospital.
Brad Smith called the Robinsons to notify them about Joshua’s medical troubles.
“I will never forget, we walked into the room, and he reached out his arms to both of us and hugged us,” Karen Robinson said. “He was skin and bones. He had cuts all over his body.”
The doctor informed them Joshua’s bowel had perforated.
“He told us that he had never in his life seen anybody with an impacted bowel like that,” Karen Robinson said. “I can’t believe that they let it get that far along.”
Karen Robinson took pictures documenting Joshua’s emaciated condition, which she provided to WFAA.
Joshua died four days later in hospice care. He was 38.
“I called them at the hospital that night and talked to the supervisor and asked her, what was going on, why they hadn't even called an ambulance,” Karen Robinson said.
She says the supervisor told her it violated protocol.
“They never told us anything was wrong,” Karen Robinson said.
LaFon investigated Joshua’s death. The family gave her written permission to speak about his case.
“For somebody to come into the home and say, ‘Oh, he's sick,’” LaFon said. “That's just people not paying attention. He's a young guy who shouldn't die from constipation. It makes me angry that they let that happen.”
The state report says Joshua previously had been taken twice to the emergency room in 2022 for severe constipation. It’d been recommended the facility track his bowel movements, follow up with this doctor and get a GI consultation.
However, none of that occurred, the report said.
“The staff there said that they had reported many times to nursing that he was having bowel problems, constipation, they had photographs of stool that he had removed himself,” LaFon told WFAA. “They made an attempt to get somebody's attention, but nobody in nursing or administration was listening to them.”
Records also show he’d lost 41 pounds from 2021 to 2022.
On March 24, 2022, the same day Joshua died, the state issued an “immediate threat” finding and ordered EduCare to fix the issues identified in the report.
“It's a piece of paper, it's a slap on the wrist,” LaFon said.
A few days before Joshua went the final time to the hospital, his stepmother said they’d received a call from an EduCare nurse letting them know that Joshua would be undergoing surgery to repair his ear. She said the nurse told them that a mask had grown into his ear, and they’d had to cut it loose.
The Robinsons say the facility never told them about the two prior hospital emergency room trips. They didn’t find out about the medical emergencies until WFAA provided a copy of the state report.
“They should be held totally responsible and accountable,” Karen Robinson said of Joshua’s death. “It's unforgivable, what they have done.”
Conner Smith
Seven miles away, in North Arlington, Conner Smith lived in another EduCare home.
He was the middle child of Bart and Lisa Smith. He’d been diagnosed with autism as a toddler. He loved to sing, dance and make videos.
But the family said as he got older, violent outbursts became a frequent occurrence.
“He loved to be with his family, but I think he was always frustrated and angry,” his father said. “He was just trapped by autism.”
The family placed him in the EduCare home in December 2016.
Like the Robinsons, they say they had difficulty getting information about Conner’s care. Basic hygiene needs often went ignored, the family said.
“When we would question their policies and their practices, they threatened to kick Conner out,” Bart Smith said. “They’d say, ‘Why don’t you just take him home?”
The Smiths, however, say given the shortage of group home beds, they had few options. They also say they never thought his life was in danger.
In September 2022, Conner spent the weekend with his parents. Lisa Smith’s birthday was just a few days away, and a video shows him singing “Happy Birthday” to her.
Lisa Smith recalls he’d been a “little constipated.” But otherwise, he seemed healthy.
He returned to the group home Monday.
“I got a text the next day, saying, ‘Oh, he had a bowel movement,” Lisa Smith said. “And I said, ‘Oh, good, he's feeling better.’”
But late Tuesday night, his caretaker called 911 to report that Conner was sick.
Police body cameras recorded officers talking to the caretaker. The caretaker explained that Conner had been experiencing bouts of severe diarrhea.
“What caused you to call 911?” an officer asked.
“He needs medical attention,” the caretaker responded.
A state report said the caretaker told paramedics that he carried Conner to the toilet and returned to check on him 20 minutes later.
Paramedics arrived to find Conner still on the toilet, his head leaning against a handicap rail, a state report said. Paramedics gave the 25-year-old CPR.
It was too late.
Conner died on the floor of the bathroom.
An autopsy found he died of an ischemic bowel, meaning blood wasn’t reaching his bowels.
LaFon investigated Conner’s death, too. His parents gave her written permission to speak about it.
“There’s no question people were not paying attention,” she said.
LaFon, a registered nurse for 30 years, says she took the job as a nurse surveyor in October 2021. She told WFAA that she grew disillusioned by what she saw – in particular, the medical care offered in homes operated by EduCare.
“Too many things were not taken seriously,” she said. “People were not taken good care of, and I just can’t stomach it.”
She quit her job in December 2022.
“I've never been in a situation where I was so disgusted with how people were being taken care of, and how little I could do about it,” she said. “People are still sent to them for care. And innocent people are dying.
In a statement, the company said its “top priority is ensuring the health, well-being and safety of the individuals we serve.”
The company said it could not comment further “due to ongoing litigation in this matter.”
But it’s not the first time WFAA’s covered a death involving an EduCare group home in Arlington.
In 2018, Mina Iskander, a blind mentally disabled man, got out of his house unsupervised. He fell into a rocky creek. Medical records show his ribs and sternum were broken.
State officials found EduCare failed to “ensure” Mina was “monitored.”
Since their deaths, Joshua was buried a short distance from the Robinson’s home. Conner is also buried near his parent’s home.
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