A child welfare worker said Ethan Henderson was ‘safe’ after a tip that he was abused and an inspection revealed he had a broken arm.
No employees in the state’s Child Protective Services division have been disciplined in connection with the death of Ethan Henderson, the 10-week-old fatally injured by his father in 2012 just three days after a state worker decided he was not at risk.
A Child Protective Services worker visited Ethan’s home in Arundel after receiving an anonymous complaint that the infant was being abused. The division’s Biddeford District Office “made a preliminary safety decision that Ethan was safe,” according to an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services after the baby’s death.
That determination was reached even though DHHS learned during the visit that Ethan’s arm had been broken on March 21, when he was just a month old.
The Portland Press Herald filed a freedom of information request on Aug. 18 for any records of final disciplinary action against state employees regarding Ethan’s death. DHHS officials responded there were no such records.
Disciplinary action against public employees is only made public when it is final, after the employee has waived or exhausted all appeals. It is possible some disciplinary action is pending, but that is unlikely because the case is two and half years old.
The only health care or child welfare worker disciplined so far in Ethan’s death is Virginia McNamara, a visiting nurse who surrendered her license to practice in Maine after the Maine State Board of Nursing found she failed to report signs of abuse.
The pediatrician who treated the infant for a broken arm will be issued a letter of guidance next month by the Board of Osteopathic Licensure, which oversees conduct by osteopathic doctors. The Board of Licensure in Medicine, which oversees the conduct of doctors with a medical degree, has taken no action against anyone in the case.
All three licensing boards were provided details of the case by the Attorney General’s Office at the request of State Police. The nursing board initiated its complaint based on that information.
Gene Henderson, of Newport, is the adoptive father of Christina Henderson, mother of Ethan and his twin brother Lucas. The twins’ father, Gordon Collins-Faunce, is serving 20 years for manslaughter in Ethan’s death.
Henderson said state child safety workers should be held more accountable for the death of his grandson.
“It really bothers me the Department of (Health and) Human Services is not being held more liable than they were, not that they care what I think,” Henderson said Wednesday.
Collins-Faunce was watching the twins when, according to his interview with state police, he lost his temper, squeezed the child’s head and threw him into a chair. When the child started screaming, he called 911.
Ethan Henderson lived for three days on life support and died May 8. Doctors found signs of prolonged abuse – injuries to his head and ribs and other bruising.
An assistant attorney general said at Collins-Faunce’s sentencing that the state had received an anonymous complaint that the twins had illnesses that went untreated and that their older sister had bruises. The department’s investigative findings, provided to the Portland Press Herald after a separate freedom of information request, said only that the complaint was about physical abuse.
The complaint was made April 30, 2012, and the home visit took place three days later.
Ethan’s parents knew about the pending visit and cleaned up the house, the prosecutor said. Child Protective Services’ Biddeford District Office made the preliminary decision that Ethan and his siblings were safe, the report said.
Gene Henderson said that he and his wife adopted Christina when she was 10, – she was one of four children the couple adopted. When Henderson and his wife divorced, Christina, then a high school sophomore, lived with her mother.
Ethan’s obituary does not note Gene Henderson among the survivors, although it does mention Janet Henderson of Wilton.
Henderson, who lives in Newport, said he didn’t speak with his daughter often after she went to college. He saw her first child only once, when the girl, now 5, was an infant. He said he didn’t know he had twin grandsons until the day he was told that Ethan had been killed.
The girl and Ethan’s twin Lucas have since been placed with another family.
Collins-Faunce’s adoptive parents, Irving Faunce and Jan Collins, brought a complaint before the Board of Osteopathic Medicine against Dr. Lisa Gouldsbrough, the pediatrician who treated the child’s broken arm and other ailments.
The couple’s lawyer, William McKinley, said Gouldsbrough was in the best position to know that Ethan Henderson was being abused.
“The nursing board found there were obvious signs of child abuse with a more limited subset of medical history,” he said. “All those other health care providers, they all had pieces of information. Really the only provider that had all the information, not only regarding Ethan but also regarding his siblings, was the physician we filed the complaint against.”
Gouldsbrough gave an extensive presentation to the board about the number of times she treated the baby, including her decision to send him to an orthopedic specialist for a broken arm.
That specialist, Dr. Vincent Oliviero, concluded that the injuries on Ethan’s arm were not typical of abuse injuries, she said.