By Spencer Hunt and Debra Jasper
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Patti McCoy's son, Robert, collapsed at a Columbus institution cited for not having enough staff. (Photo by Michael E. Keating)

One morning during breakfast, Robert Lee McCoy fished waffles out of the trash at his state-run institution, stuffed them into his mouth and started choking.

Workers at the Columbus Developmental Center's Parkside complex used the Heimlich maneuver on Mr. McCoy to restore his breathing. Workers said he appeared to be all right.

But minutes later, the 39-year-old man collapsed in a hallway. An autopsy report shows he died later that day, Sept. 11, 2000, of bronchopneumonia, complicated by heart disease.

Seven months later, when state health inspectors reviewed Mr. McCoy's case, they cited the center for not having enough staff to supervise sometimes "chaotic" dining rooms.

In a place where people are supposed to be closely watched, one resident drank cherry juice out of a bowl while another stuffed large amounts of food in his mouth.

Although the Health Department threatened to decertify the Parkside complex last March, it relented after the center added more workers to the dining rooms and made seating assignments for diners.

Debra Bucilla, center superintendent, says inspectors should not have linked Mr. McCoy's death to the dining rooms, because he didn't die from choking. She also says the dining rooms were not chaotic.

"They took an unusual incident of the death, made an assumption that wasn't accurate and went into a building on heightened alert," Ms. Bucilla says.

Mr. McCoy's mother, Patti McCoy of Columbus, praises a center nurse for working tirelessly that day to try to revive her son, known as "Uncle Bob" to everyone in the family.

"Their hands were tied at doing things because there wasn't enough staff," Ms. McCoy says. "I'm glad to hear there was something done about it."

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