THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280282
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS AND TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 180 lines
When Steve Snellinger picked up the telephone in his Suffolk home May 10, he was told his sister had suffered a seizure and had been taken to the hospital.
Mentally disabled and prone to seizures, Pamela L. Snellinger was a 36-year-old resident of a group home operated by Community Alternatives Inc., an agency that cares for about 75 of the city's mentally disabled adults.
Steve knew that seizures usually left Pamela exhausted and needing a check-up at a hospital. Besides, he would later say, the counselor who had called from the home on Old Post Road sounded ``casual'' about the episode.
After Steve hung up, he called his brother Marc, who lived closer to Virginia Beach General Hospital. Steve asked him to go to the emergency room to check on their sister.
Marc made the trip in minutes. When he arrived at the hospital, he learned more.
``I asked about my sister and said I wanted to see her, but they sent me to a room down the hall and told me I might want to contact family members,'' Marc said. ``I was taken by surprise. I could see through the door, and every doctor in the emergency room was working on her. I could see all the machines she was hooked up to.''
Marc immediately phoned Steve, telling him, ``Get on down here. There's more to this than just a seizure.''
A short time later, two other brothers - Chuck, of Virginia Beach and Jerry, of Chesapeake - joined Steve and Marc in what became a nightlong hospital vigil.
Steve said the attending physician, Dr. Peter Birk, took him and his brothers into a private room and told them that Pamela might not make it and that if she did she would probably be brain dead.
``I said to him, `What? From the seizure?' ''
The doctor told them that their sister had drowned, Steve said.
Pamela Snellinger was officially pronounced dead at 10:30 the next morning. She had never regained consciousness.
In the months afterward, the brothers and their sisters, Charla Connell and Leslie Blake, both of Texas, have tried to learn more. But many of their questions remain unanswered.
They say they have been unable to obtain first-hand accounts of the events from Old Post counselors on duty the night Pamela drowned as well as from staff at the workshop program Pamela attended each weekday.
The brothers have met twice with Community Alternatives supervisors after requesting permission to view the agency's records under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
But each time they say the details they were given raised more questions than they answered.
``There are different stories, and none coincide,'' Steve said.
``Every door is locked,'' Marc said. ``There are no answers, or there's always a different answer. I'm not sure we'll ever know the truth.''
Among the questions left unanswered:
Why was Pamela left alone in the bathroom when she was supposed to have 24-hour supervision?
Why does a Community Alternatives report say that Pamela died of cardiac arrest when in fact she drowned?
Why did the same CAI report say an autopsy was requested by the family when the brothers say they did not specifically ask for one?
Karen Mallam, executive director of Community Alternatives, declined to discuss the Snellinger case.
``Those who have the right to know - family members - have the information,'' she said Friday.
When told that the brothers have unanswered questions about Pamela's death, Mallam said she was surprised.
``That's not what they have told me,'' she said.
Dennis I. Wool, executive director of the Community Services Board, which contracts with CAI to provide services for the mentally disabled, offered this explanation:
``On the night in question, Pam was being prepared for a bath by two staff members,'' Wool said. ``There was some kind of disturbance in the house, and both staff members left Pam to attend to the crisis. I don't know if they left the water running or turned it off, but it's my understanding they instructed her not to get in.
``When they got back, Pam was in the water. She had gotten into the bath water. They began CPR and called 911 and she was taken to Virginia Beach General Hospital.''
Wool said the group home's staff was ``devastated'' when they learned that Snellinger had died.
``They were really troubled by the experience,'' he said. Wool also defended the work of Community Alternatives and its staff.
``The question in my mind is what did we do to improve the quality of life for her,'' Wool said. ``There is no question in my mind that we improved the quality of life for Pam Snellinger. No question. We improved it 100 percent.''
Dr. Leah Bush, assistant chief medical examiner for Tidewater, said Pamela Snellinger died from brain swelling brought on by a lack of oxygen resulting from the near-drowning. ``Near-drowning'' occurs when a person is submerged ``not long enough to kill'' but long enough to result in brain death, Bush explained. She estimated that one would have to be underwater for five to eight minutes for near-drowning to occur.
Virginia Beach police investigated and ruled Snellinger's death an accident.
Terry Hoban reached a similar conclusion in a June 13 report. He is an investigator for the licensure board of the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services in Richmond.
``This was a most unfortunate situation for all involved,'' Hoban wrote. ``The ruling of accidental drowning is, I believe, the correct finding.''
Frustrated in their efforts to receive a full account of Pamela's death, the Snellinger family last fall retained an attorney, Robert Samuels Jr. of the Virginia Beach law firm of Clark & Stant, hoping to pursue a negligence suit against the city and CAI.
Recently, however, Samuels advised the Snellingers that he could not continue to represent them because of a conflict of interest.
In his Jan. 15 letter to the Snellingers, Samuels said that his firm had been appointed by Gov. George F. Allen to provide risk management representation to the state mental health agency. Though Samuels knew of the appointment, he later said he was ``not aware of the scope of the representation and the conflict.''
The Snellingers now have hired Andrew M. Sacks of Sacks, Sacks & Imprevento, of Norfolk.
``We want answers,'' said Mark Snellinger.``Our main concern is that the same thing doesn't happen to another child.''
Pamela Snellinger was the daughter of Charles and Jeanne Snellinger.
Her brothers believe she was born a healthy, normal girl, but said she developed chicken pox and a high fever at 2 months old. They believe that illness resulted in a lifetime of mental disabilities, including seizures.
Growing up next-to-youngest in the family, Pamela had four older brothers and an older sister to watch out for her, in addition to a pair of devoted parents.
``When we were growing up and Pam was in the bathtub, someone always watched her - always,'' said Steve Snellinger, recalling how it was sometimes his job to sit outside the bathroom door and call out, ``Pam, you OK?''
Pamela attended special education programs in Virginia Beach and, after graduating from high school, worked at the city's sheltered workshop.
She lived with her parents until they died, her mother in October 1985 and her father less than a year later. Her parents' deaths threw Pamela into an emotional tailspin, according to her brothers.
A plan for her care was not in place and, for several months, she lived with her brothers. Then she moved into a Virginia Beach group home.
Soon, though, Pamela began hurting herself and her worried siblings put her in Tallwood Psychiatric Institute in Norfolk. There, professionals tried to help her understand her parents' deaths.
She made progress in coping with her loss, but when she returned to the group home, her destructive behavior resumed.
In May 1987, Pamela entered a behavior modification program at Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights, near Lynchburg. It was an approach her family hoped would help her deal with the behavior problems so that she could live an independent life in a local group home.
The intensive program worked, and, according to brother Steve, ``she turned into a beautiful young lady, pretty. She had a super, super personality, a great sense of humor.''
Pamela was ready to return to a group home setting, but Virginia Beach had no opening at the time. So her stint at the training center, meant to be only several months, lengthened into nearly a year and a half. Late in 1988, Pamela moved into Old Post Home.
What Jerry Snellinger remembers most about his sister is her sparkling laugh. It was a laugh that drew the family together.
Pamela's parents and six siblings lavished love on her. She gave a double measure back to them, showing her gratitude for the small things as well. ``If you gave her a piece of bubble gum, she'd thank you,'' Jerry said. ``It was like you gave her a million dollars.''
Despite her physical handicaps, Pamela could carry on an intelligent conversation on just about any subject - well, ``except maybe politics,'' Jerry said.
``She was special to us all,'' he said. ``Our mother never wanted Pam to be institutionalized. That's why we went through what we did to get her into a group home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Color
JOHN H. SHEALLY II/Staff
The Snellinger brothers - Steve, Marc, Jerry and Chuck - are trying
to find out how their sister Pamela, 36, died at a Virginia Beach
group home.
KEYWORDS: DROWNING by CNB