In 1938, a state-supported institution for the mentally handicapped, known as the Willowbrook State School opened in Staten Island, NY. It was originally opened as a treatment center for disabled and injured World War II veterans but was quickly rebranded as a school for the mentally disabled.
To cut to the chase: The lessons that were learned there were not academic.
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| Willowbrook State School (Courtesy of Opacity.us) |
The school was bringing in more students than it could afford to. By 1965, the school that had room for only 4,000 patients had well over 6,000 and was well understaffed.
If they had to go to the bathroom, they had to go on the floor. If that wasn't bad enough nobody was coming to clean the rooms or change their bed sheets, which meant that the patients had to sleep on the floor, in their own fecal matter.
Patients weren't even taught to keep themselves clean. As former patient Judy Moiseff told rootedinrights.org:
Moiseff told rootedinrights, that when the patients did shower they'd have to do it together and would be given only five minutes. There were no towels or soap, there was no toothpaste and there was absolutely no assistance. Without being taught proper hygiene many couldn't keep it up.
As a result of the squalor these patients were living in, 30 to 50 percent of them ended up contracting hepatitis--a disease that effects the liver. Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea.
To figure out why this was happening, Dr. Saul Krugman, from the New York University School of Medicine, conducted experiments on more than 700 patients!
One particular experiment consisted of injecting the patients with the actual disease either through a needle or through the feeding of infected stool samples. Yes, technically these experiments were legal--the researchers had gotten consent from the patients' parents--but remember, these children had been ABANDONED by their parents.
In the early 1970's, rumors started circulating that children were being abused at the Willowbrook State School. Frequent reports by local newspapers such as the Staten Island Advance as well as the Staten Island Register reported about patients being beaten and killed by strangulation.
Former patient, Bernard Carabello, said of his time there:
It wasn't until 1972 that the horrors of Willowbrook State School were completely exposed by an up-and-coming journalist, named Geraldo Rivera.
At the time, Rivera was working as a broadcaster for WABC in New York. He was contacted by a doctor who had just recently been fired by the Willowbrook State School and was looking to expose their cruelties.
Rivera was provided with a key to one of the hospital's buildings and without warning, he brought a camera crew inside to document his findings. Of course, what he found was horrific. In the 28-minute news report that followed, he confirmed the audience worst fears.
Reforms were brought upon the institution yet it was several years before many of them were enacted. By 1987, the hospital was shut down and the land was sold to the College of Staten Island.
In that time between Rivera's broadcast and the hospital's closure, many patients were liberated; physically and mentally. Many of the patients went on to lead successful lives.
Following his release from Willowbrook, Bernard Carabello went on to become a government worker for the city of New York. Some went on to work steady jobs and some started families. Others moved into assisted-living housing. More importantly.....the two hundred or so that were able to walk out of those hospital doors in 1987 continued to survive.
The irony of the situation is that all of the Willowbrook residents were institutionalized because nobody envisioned a future for them.
Their doctors and parents believed that the world would chew these kids up and spit them out and so, naturally, they thought that shielding them from society was the best option.
Yet they actually ended up enduring much worse circumstances and surviving. Sure, many patients died at Willowbrook. But more than 200 survived. More than 200 overcame the hand they'd been dealt.
To find out what these survivors have been up to in the past 30 years:
Instead of spending more so that the hospital could efficiently run the day-to-day operations, budgets were cut. Less money was spent on food or clothes, which meant, that many "students" were left running around the institution; naked and malnourished.
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| Patients at the Willowbrook State School (Courtesy of fsdtrust.org) |
And it gets much worse. Neglect was common. Children would be locked in their rooms for hours at a time.
If they had to go to the bathroom, they had to go on the floor. If that wasn't bad enough nobody was coming to clean the rooms or change their bed sheets, which meant that the patients had to sleep on the floor, in their own fecal matter.
Patients weren't even taught to keep themselves clean. As former patient Judy Moiseff told rootedinrights.org:
"Residents would rarely shower, and were rarely taught hygiene and grooming skills at all."
 |
| Courtesy of disabilityjustice.org |
Moiseff told rootedinrights, that when the patients did shower they'd have to do it together and would be given only five minutes. There were no towels or soap, there was no toothpaste and there was absolutely no assistance. Without being taught proper hygiene many couldn't keep it up.
As a result of the squalor these patients were living in, 30 to 50 percent of them ended up contracting hepatitis--a disease that effects the liver. Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea.
To figure out why this was happening, Dr. Saul Krugman, from the New York University School of Medicine, conducted experiments on more than 700 patients!
 |
| Dr. Saul Krugman (Courtesy of hiddenhistoriesofmedicine.weebly.com) |
One particular experiment consisted of injecting the patients with the actual disease either through a needle or through the feeding of infected stool samples. Yes, technically these experiments were legal--the researchers had gotten consent from the patients' parents--but remember, these children had been ABANDONED by their parents.
In the early 1970's, rumors started circulating that children were being abused at the Willowbrook State School. Frequent reports by local newspapers such as the Staten Island Advance as well as the Staten Island Register reported about patients being beaten and killed by strangulation.
Former patient, Bernard Carabello, said of his time there:
“I got beaten with sticks, belt buckles. I got my head kicked into the wall by staff … most of the kids sat in the day room naked, with no clothes on. There was a lot of sexual abuse going on from staff to residents, also.”
Another patient, David Clark, told SILive.com that as a result of the physical abuse he had endured his eyesight had deteriorated. |
| Geraldo Rivera circa 1972 (Courtesy of WABC) |
At the time, Rivera was working as a broadcaster for WABC in New York. He was contacted by a doctor who had just recently been fired by the Willowbrook State School and was looking to expose their cruelties.
Rivera was provided with a key to one of the hospital's buildings and without warning, he brought a camera crew inside to document his findings. Of course, what he found was horrific. In the 28-minute news report that followed, he confirmed the audience worst fears.
“This is what it looked like, this is what it sounded like. But how can I tell you about the way it smelled? It smelled of filth, it smelled of disease, and it smelled of death.”
The news broadcast did raise national awareness of the situation that plagued Willowbrook and many other mental institutions of the time and lead to a class-action lawsuit being brought against the state of New York.Reforms were brought upon the institution yet it was several years before many of them were enacted. By 1987, the hospital was shut down and the land was sold to the College of Staten Island.
In that time between Rivera's broadcast and the hospital's closure, many patients were liberated; physically and mentally. Many of the patients went on to lead successful lives.
Following his release from Willowbrook, Bernard Carabello went on to become a government worker for the city of New York. Some went on to work steady jobs and some started families. Others moved into assisted-living housing. More importantly.....the two hundred or so that were able to walk out of those hospital doors in 1987 continued to survive.
The irony of the situation is that all of the Willowbrook residents were institutionalized because nobody envisioned a future for them.
Their doctors and parents believed that the world would chew these kids up and spit them out and so, naturally, they thought that shielding them from society was the best option.
Yet they actually ended up enduring much worse circumstances and surviving. Sure, many patients died at Willowbrook. But more than 200 survived. More than 200 overcame the hand they'd been dealt.
To find out what these survivors have been up to in the past 30 years:
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