SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - In a story March 14 about a woman facing a deadline to retain a new attorney in order to proceed with a lawsuit over her son’s death, The Associated Press misidentified the site where 17-year-old Brady Folkens died. He died at Avera McKinnon Hospital in Sioux Falls, not at the State Treatment and Rehabilitation Academy near Custer.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Mother suing state over son’s death up against deadline
The mother of a teenager who died while in state custody is up against a May 25 court deadline to find an attorney to handle her lawsuit against the state
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The mother of a teenage boy who died while in state custody is running out of time to find an attorney to handle her lawsuit against the state.
Dawn Van Ballegooyen is seeking unspecified monetary damages for the death of her son, Brady Folkens, 17, who had been in custody at the State Treatment and Rehabilitation Academy, where he was held for skipping school and smoking marijuana. State officials said he died in a Sioux Falls hospital of lymphocytic myocarditis caused by parvovirus B19, which is considered a common virus, after it spread to his heart and damaged the organ.
But Dr. Lars Aanning, a retired surgeon from Yankton who frequently serves as an expert witness on medical cases, determined that the evidence from Brady’s autopsy and medical records doesn’t point to parvovirus B19 causing the heart damage. He believes the heart damage was most likely caused by an autoimmune reaction to minocycline, a medication that Brady was taking because of acne.
Van Ballegooyen claims that state officials administered the minocycline, even though Brady had a bad reaction to the medicine a year earlier, the Argus Leader (https://argusne.ws/1XpKglF ) reported.
“I didn’t even know he was on the medication until after he passed,” she said.
Van Ballegooyen sued in federal court in December 2014, alleging state negligence. But her attorneys withdrew a year ago, and after three extensions, a judge set a May 25 deadline for her to find new counsel.
Aanning’s review of the autopsy, which was performed by Dr. Raed Sulaiman, found that a key antibody that should have been present with a parvovirus B19 was not in Brady’s case, meaning that the virus wouldn’t have caused his heart to fail. Aanning also found evidence that the results from one test were substituted for the results of another test.
“I think nobody thought that anybody with a tooth’s comb would look over that autopsy report carefully,” Aanning said.
Sioux Falls lawyer Gary Thimsen, who’s representing the state, said he’s prevented by federal law from discussing specifics about Brady’s medical issues. But he said the state turned over all medical files counselors’ notes and all other records Van Ballegooyen has sought related to her son.
Sulaiman declined to comment on the autopsy.
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