Family sues state-licensed Rolling Meadows group home for wrongful death, alleging ‘fatal choking event’
The family of a woman who died of choking while in the care of a state-licensed Rolling Meadows group home is suing over her death, alleging in a complaint that the home and a worker failed to protect her despite known risks.
Family members are also calling on the state to improve its supervision of community-integrated living arrangements, or CILAs, the small group homes in which many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities reside, according to a statement.
Emily Kasanga, a resident of a Clearbrook group home in Rolling Meadows, died in April, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court.
“Our sister had trouble communicating and needed protection as do so many of the CILA residents who are very at risk due to their disabilities,” Ashley Kasanga, 34-year-old Emily Kasanga’s sister and the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented families in high-profile cases — including those of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and Sonya Massey, a Springfield woman who was shot in her home two years ago by a sheriff’s deputy — is representing Kasanga’s estate along with Chicago personal injury attorney Margaret Battersby Black, according to a news release.
Emily Kasanga, who had autism, intermittent explosive disorder and seizure disorder, “suffered a fatal choking event” while living at a Clearbrook group home, according to the lawsuit.
Staff at her home knew or should have known she was at risk for choking and that she required 24-hour care and support, according to the lawsuit. On the day she died, the home failed to appropriately prepare and cut up her food or supervise her, the suit alleges.
She had lived in the Clearbrook group home for more than a decade, according to the news release from her family’s attorneys.
In addition to Clearbrook, the lawsuit also names a staff member, direct support professional Joyce Ezunu, as a defendant. Ezunu was responsible for caring for Kasanga, but on the day Kasanga died allowed her to eat without the required supervision “while attending to matters elsewhere in the home,” the complaint alleges.
Ezunu found Kasanga choking and “failed to timely and appropriately intervene,” according to the lawsuit.
Instead, Ezunu “enlisted one or more residents to assist in attempting the Heimlich maneuver while emergency services were contacted,” the suit alleges.
A police officer and paramedics later arrived and tried to save Kasanga, but she was pronounced dead at the scene that afternoon, according to the lawsuit.
Clearbrook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the union representing workers at Clearbrook declined to comment, saying it did not represent members in individual litigation. A voicemail message left at a phone number listed for Ezunu in an online directory was not returned.