Lee Massie-Hardy, 31, was born with a rare genetic condition that plagued him with an insatiable appetite and a drive to hoard food.
It led to extreme weight gain and was one of the reasons he was living in an adult foster home with strict rules that the refrigerator must be locked, he was not allowed into grocery stores and he was restricted to 2,000 calories per day.
That’s according to a lawsuit filed last week, which alleges that Oregon officials overseeing the care of adults with disabilities and the adult home where Massie-Hardy resided failed to properly keep watch over him, with fatal consequences.
In spring 2023, Massie-Hardy was outside the home unsupervised and able to steal food items from a store, according to the suit. He then hid them in his living quarters, where he later ate them even though they required refrigeration and had become spoiled, the lawsuit says. That sent Massie-Hardy to the emergency room with a foodborne illness that ultimately led to his death on May 14, 2023, the suit says.
Massie-Hardy’s mother, Martha Hutton of Portland, filed the suit Wednesday against the Oregon Department of Human Services, its Office of Developmental Disabilities Services and the Duressa Teshite Adult Foster Home in Silverton for several alleged lapses, including neglecting to care for a vulnerable adult, failing to follow his established care plan and wrongful death.
The Department of Human Services declined to comment. Massie-Hardy was in the “custody” of the state when he was placed in the Duressa Teshite Adult Foster Home, the suit says. A person who answered the phone at the home Thursday declined to identify himself but said Massie-Hardy’s death was not the home’s fault.
“I had given him very good care,” said the person.
The lawsuit says Massie-Hardy had Prader-Willi syndrome, which the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research says is caused by the loss of the functioning of genes on Chromosome 15. It is best known for creating “a chronic and intense drive to eat that does not turn off” but also can be characterized by developmental delays and behavioral difficulties, according to the foundation.
The lawsuit states that Massie-Hardy also had asthma, heart failure, sleep apnea and other health problems.
“His body could not tell whether he was full or not,” states the lawsuit. “His records reflect longstanding and known risks associated with this diagnosis, including food hoarding and consumption of unsafe or non-digestible items.”
According to the lawsuit, unrefrigerated items were found in Massie-Hardy’s room on April 12, 2023. But despite that, he was later found to be hiding stolen, unrefrigerated food in his room again, the suit states. On May 1, 2023, he ended up in the emergency room with pain, nausea and vomiting after apparently eating unrefrigerated food items that he had obtained. He went home, then returned the next day and then again 11 days later, according to the suit.
He died the next day of hypovolemic shock, which is caused by a loss in blood or fluids, the suit says.
“The exact mechanism of illness does not alter the central fact that unrestricted access to unsafe food, despite known risks and required safeguards, directly led to the medical crisis that resulted in his death,” the suit says.
Specifically, the lawsuit faults the adult foster home for allegedly failing to institute a protocol to search Massie-Hardy’s room, citing his past of stealing and hiding food that needed to be refrigerated.
Portland attorneys George McCoy and Nicole Lemieux filed the suit in Marion County Circuit Court. Neither responded to a request from The Oregonian/OregonLive for more details about the case.
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