The 14-year-old girl, who had cerebral palsy, died March 1. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled Makayla’s death a homicide by means of medical and nutritional abuse and neglect.
As her death garnered national attention, appearing on CNN on Friday, local social service leaders said there needs to be more attention paid to home health care so that problems are corrected before they end in such tragedies.
A grand jury Thursday indicted four people related to the girl’s death. Makayla’s mother, Angela Norman, and Makayla’s nurse Mollie Parsons, who was to care for the girl six days a week, both face involuntary manslaughter and other charges.
Nurses Kathryn E. Williams and Mary K. Kilby, who were to supervise Makayla’s care, were also charged.
Williams and Kilby are both charged with failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and a misdemeanor count of failing to report child abuse or neglect.
Exclusive Home Care Services employed both Williams and Parson and was paid through a contract with Ohio Job & Family Services. Kilby, an employee of CareStar, also has a contract with Job & Family Services to manage Medicaid cases.
Makayla, who weighed 28 pounds when she died, was covered in bedsores, and her neglect was obvious, said County Prosecuting Attorney Mathias H. Heck Jr.
Dr. Ted Wymyslo, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said this case underscores the need for better state regulation of in-home nursing care, particularly as the state seeks to shift more care from institutions into the home.
Dennis Grant, executive director of United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton, said cerebral palsy patients can struggle with low weight, but it’s “unheard of” for a 14-year-old to weigh only 28 pounds. “I can’t imagine a child, as Mat Heck described, a skeleton,” Grant said. “That’s what you see in Biafran babies and places where there’s war and famine, not a child who’s receiving regular services.”
Grant said agencies have a safety advantage over home-based care in that “you have a lot more eyes on the problem. Every day we do a physical check of every child who enters our building, looking out for weight loss or behavior changes.”
Grant said Makayla was never a client of URS, which was founded 51 years ago as United Cerebral Palsy.
Neighbor Denise Harris-Wood said Friday she did not know Williams or Kilby, but did see Parsons at the Norman home. She said Parsons appeared to have a close relationship with Angela Norman, even going shopping together while Norman’s older daughter took care of Makayla.
Harris-Wood said that Claude Norman, Angela’s estranged husband and the father of her two daughters, was a good father who spent time with Makayla and kept the house clean.
“Claude took good care of Makayla,” she said. “He fed her, he bathed her, he read to her.”
Harris-Wood said the couple split up two years ago and Claude moved out. After he was gone, the house became so filthy, Harris-Wood said, she would not enter it.
“It was unhealthy, filthy,” Harris-Wood said. “Dog mess everywhere, cat mess everywhere.”
Claude Norman could not be reached for comment. Montgomery County Common Pleas records show he has a pending felony drug possession case. Their other daughter, now 18, was removed from the home after Makayla’s death and now lives in foster care in Miami County.
Harris-Wood said Angela Norman moved from the 707 Taylor St. home around September. She said she found unopened cases of Ensure, a nutritional supplement, and unused medical supplies when she helped the owner of the house with cleanup. “She had all the materials to take care of her,’’ Harris-Wood said.
Jill Moberley, Dayton Public Schools spokeswoman, said Makayla was withdrawn by her parents from the school district in 2004 when she was 6 for the purpose of being home-schooled. Moberley said Friday that the district is checking its records to see whether Makayla’s parents provided an academic assessment of the child every year, as required by Ohio law.
Ann Stevens, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Department of Job & Family Services, said the case underscores the moral obligation of residents to report suspicions of child abuse or neglect. Stevens said Children Services received a complaint about the family in 2009. At the time, the investigation concluded there was no evidence to substantiate the complaint, she said.
If initial complaints are ignored or not sufficiently substantiated, Stevens said, it’s important for people to continue calling with new information. “One call may not provide the information that we need. Keep calling law enforcement and Children Services. Don’t tell yourself, ‘I called, and it’s done.’ Don’t quit until a child who is at risk is being helped.”
Staff writer Ben Sutherly contributed to this story.
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