Girl died of ‘easily treated’ infection at Utah teen treatment center, had ‘begged’ for help

[Stevyn]

Girl died of ‘easily treated’ infection at Utah teen treatment center, had ‘begged’ for help

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/04/21/ ... infection/

A 17-year-old girl who died at Diamond Ranch Academy in December suffered from an infection that is usually “easily treated,” her family’s attorney announced Friday, citing autopsy records.

But even though the girl had been experiencing symptoms of infection for days, managers at the southern Utah youth residential treatment center refused her medical attention, the attorney said in a statement Friday.

Taylor Goodridge died at the Hurricane facility on Dec. 20, 2022, due to peritonitis — an infection of the abdomen tissue, according to an excerpt from the girl’s autopsy report released by her family’s lawyer. The first symptoms of peritonitis are typically vomiting and a swollen stomach — which Goodridge suffered from for over a week before she died.

Typically, the infection is “easily treated with antibiotics,” the family’s lawyer said. But when Goodridge “begged for help multiple times,” her pleas drew “punishment,” according to the statement. The family’s lawyer said Diamond Ranch Academy staff was also “begging” management to take Goodridge to a hospital “for days before she died,” but she was never taken, according to the statement.

An attorney for Diamond Ranch Academy declined comment Friday afternoon.

Diamond Ranch Academy is a 108-bed teen treatment program in Hurricane that describes itself on its website as a “world-class residential treatment center and therapeutic boarding school for teenagers.”

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services determined that Goodridge developed symptoms as early as Dec. 9, according to her family’s lawyer. Despite multiple instances of vomiting, her pleas for help were “completely disregarded” by the academy, and the facility also canceled Goodridge’s weekly phone calls to her parents leading up to her death, the family’s lawyer said.

Goodridge ultimately developed sepsis, the Utah Medical Examiner’s office found, which spread to all of her vital organs, causing “complete organ failure,” the family’s lawyer said in a statement.

“We are devastated to learn that Taylor’s death was entirely preventable had Diamond Ranch Academy cared,” Dean Goodridge and AmberLynn Wigtion — Goodridge’s parents — said in a statement provided by their attorney.

The parents added that they “intend to continue to pursue all avenues to hold Diamond Ranch Academy accountable for her death to make sure this does not happen to other innocent teens and their families.”

https://diamondranchacademy.com/

[Stevyn]

Things to know before sending your child here.

chng.it/gKXkwMPqnY

youtu.be/j54lMGZJftQ

Please copy and paste those links and use them before making the decision to send your child here

To date 4 children have died in this facility. Two from medical negligence and two from suicide. The most recent was in December of 2022 where they ignored a girl saying she needed medical attention until she presumably died of sepsis. Please join this petition in shutting down this facility for medical neglect and much more horrific acts against children all of which are listed in this petition. chng.it/gKXkwMPqnY

This place has also had multiple incidents where they employed sexual predators of children. They have also been sued for accusations of sexual assaults that happened on campus.

There is a Facebook group with 1.2k members called "I Survived diamond ranch academy" that has testimonies of numerous children all agreeing this place was abusive, negligent, and a dangerous place that traumatized them.

Please do your research before sending your child to places like these some aren't as bad like Newport academy in California. However sending your child somewhere like this will always do more harm than good and that's just a statistical fact. If your considering sending your child away from you as a way to handle the problem you as the parent are the real problem and it is you who needs to be a more present and loving parent to your child. No one else can give your child those things without giving them a whole list of more problems and trauma to deal with down the road not to mention abandonment issues.

This place will lie to parents when children are trying to beg for help because they are being abused and or neglected by disconnecting phone calls and not sending off mail and forcing your child to smile in photos they send to you and then telling you their just trying to manipulate you. Don't let them scam you. Be informed parents and don't give anyone else permission to do anything that it is only your role to do as your child's parent:
youtu.be/PY9DcIMGxMs

I am a former resident of this program of which I attended at age 15 in the year 2015. I'm currently 23 years old and a mother myself of a beautiful baby girl. I know that loving my child and being there for her and supporting her no matter what will always be what's best for her and that as long as she will allow me too I will never abandon her, because that's what's going to push in the direction of being a strong confident woman who knows her worth is infinite