Second ex-Clarinda patient dies after transfer

A second longtime patient has died shortly after being transferred out of the state mental hospital at Clarinda in preparation for its closing.

The Clarinda facility and a sister hospital at Mount Pleasant were shuttered late last month as part of a controversial move by Gov. Terry Branstad. Critics have accused Branstad of moving too quickly to shift care of the patients, including fragile, elderly Iowans who were in a geriatric psychiatry program at Clarinda.

Robert "Jim" Hanson Jr., 65, was one of fewer than 20 patients in the geriatric program when the governor announced in January that he intended to close the two hospitals. All of the program's patients have now been moved to other facilities, mainly private nursing homes.

"I know he'd be alive today if he hadn't been transferred out of Clarinda. I'd bet my life on it," said his brother, Tim Hanson of Altoona, who was his legal guardian.

Clarinda facility staffers wrote in a "discharge assessment" on May 26 that Jim Hanson was in "brittle" condition, had serious diabetes, could not feed himself and was prone to choking.

He deteriorated quickly after being moved to a Perry nursing home on June 8, Tim Hanson said. He became severely dehydrated, and wound up in Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines. He lost the ability to swallow, and he died last Wednesday.

Jim Hanson was the second of the geriatric psychiatry patients to die shortly after being transferred out of the Clarinda state institution. The first was Richard Webb, 87, who had severe Alzheimer's disease and died about two weeks after being transferred to a Shenandoah nursing home in March, his family has said.

Webb's family said the transfer caused stress, which might have contributed to his decline. They wished he could have stayed at Clarinda, but they also said he was very frail and might have died soon even if he hadn't been transferred.

Tim Hanson has no such doubts about what led to his brother's death. He blames it squarely on the fact that his brother was taken away from the careful oversight of state staff members who'd known him for 20 years.

"It was a Godsend to have Clarinda," Tim Hanson said. "Basically, the nurses down there were Jim's brothers and sisters."

Tim Hanson said his brother, a former electric-company lineman and stock-car racer from Des Moines, suffered permanent brain damage around 1985 due to heavy alcohol use and an accidental overdose of anti-seizure medication.

Jim Hanson was given the drug by ambulance crew members en route to a hospital for treatment of diabetic shock, his brother said. He was then given a second dose of the medicine by staff at the hospital, who were unaware of the first dose.

After he became disabled, Jim Hanson was placed in three or four nursing homes, but he became combative when his blood sugar would get out of balance, his brother said. He eventually was taken to the state hospital in Clarinda, which had knowledgeable staff members who could keep his blood sugar and his moods in control, Tim Hanson said.

Tim Hanson has heard the governor claim the Clarinda facility, which was founded in the 1800s, was outdated. He describes that claim with two letters: "B.S."

"Maybe the building was old," he said, "but internally, it was state of the art."

When asked for comment, the governor's spokesman, Jimmy Centers, replied in an email. "Gov. Branstad offers his deepest condolences to the family on the loss of their loved one," he wrote. "The governor appreciates the Iowa Department of Human Services' diligence during the transition period and for placing a priority on patient needs."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, which runs the mental institutes and arranged the transfers, said she couldn't comment on the specific case.

Tim Hanson said the hospital staff and other state employees went out of their way to help the family. But in the end, he said, a private nursing home couldn't offer the same level of intense oversight his brother needed.

"If they were going to close them, that'd be fine — if we had someplace that was equal or better," he said. "I'd even take someplace that was equal or not quite so good."

Graveside services will be at 10 a.m. on Friday at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.