DeGette plans to work with Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to extend the administrative rules to protect patients living in residential facilities. Many of us know of these inhumane conditions from a popular Jack Nicholson movie. Today s action is a real victory for patients and their families, but we must not stop until we extend these protections to every institution in America. Most child victims of restraint are housed in residential facilities and we need regulations and legislation to protect these kids, DeGette added. Restraint techniques vary from inhumane, spread-eagle, four point restraint to face down holds, to near permanent application of restrictive shackles and straps.
Restraints can be excessive and restrictive.
In one publicized case, a restrained man collapsed from standing after months of continuous bed-bound restraint atrophied his leg muscles. Restraints also can kill. Casey Collier, a seventeen year-old Colorado boy, died of asphyxiation in 1993 under the domination of six adult hospital orderlies that sat on his back, legs and shoulders, crushing the oxygen out of his lungs.