State Forcibly Takes Disabled Child From Mother, Child Dies Next Day

For 14 years, Marie Freye, who is severely disabled, was lovingly cared for by her mother at home living a happy life, despite her disabilities.

On April 26, 2011, the state ordered the 14-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy and seizures, be taken into care. She died screaming 24 hours later at a $506-per-day nursing home. Records show that on the evening Marie arrived, nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications, fed her only applesauce and neglected to tell a doctor she wasn’t breathing, it emerged today.

Florida social workers ordered that Marie be taken into the Florida Club Care Center against her mother’s wishes, insisting that it was the safest place for her because of her disabilities, according to the Miami Herald.

Marie’s mother Doris pleaded with the ambulance men not to take her daughter away, which was done despite a judge’s order that she remain under the care of her family. ‘When they took Marie out of my hands, it destroyed our family forever,’ Doris said.

But records show that on the evening Marie arrived nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications and allegedly fed her only applesauce, according to the Miami Herald. She arrived screaming on a stretcher at 5:30 pm, records show. At 9 pm she was given apple sauce and ‘comfort measures’. At 11 pm and 2 am it was recorded that she was screaming again. At 5:40 am, Marie’s breathing was described as labored. Five minutes later she was ‘unresponsive’. At 6:54 am, the 14-year-old died of a heart attack at the Jackson North Medical Center.

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