Family fights for abused handicapped woman

updated 5:25 p.m. ET April 1, 2005

PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. - There are times now when Perfelia Russo is able to make a cameo appearance in her own life.

She smiles that lopsided grin and laughs the way she used to, a mischievous “heh, heh, heh,” that rumbles deep in her throat and lights up her childlike face with momentary lucidness.

But then her eyes close tight, her face goes slack, and the drugs reclaim her, carrying her away just as surely as a boat steaming from the dock.

Though she no longer wakes up screaming, “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me!”

Luizza Family via AP file Perfelia Russo is shown with bruises on her face at the Belvidere Group Home for the developmentally disabled in New Jersey, in this July 29, 2003 photo. Though state investigators determined there were three incidents of neglect and abuse involving Perfelia, Belvidere remains open.

This is what remains of Perfelia Russo after briefly living at the Belvidere Group Home for the developmentally disabled in western New Jersey. She arrived in late April 2003. She was carried out Aug. 1, battered and terrified, her eyes bruised the color of eggplant, crying again that someone there hurt her.

It has been 18 months since she left. Her family has been fighting the state of New Jersey ever since. Though state investigators determined there were three incidents of neglect and abuse involving Perfelia, Belvidere remains open. No criminal charges have been filed.

Perfelia Russo is 60, but she will forever be 4 years old, locked in an aging woman’s body, the key turned by Down syndrome, unable to perform the simplest tasks including tying her shoes.

'She was one of us'
Before Belvidere, she was a joyous person who loved trips to Atlantic City with her Aunt Lena. She could sit for hours, pumping coins into slot machines and shouting, “Be there!” as the wheels spun. No matter where she went, she talked to everyone.

She had lived with her aunt since she was 15. She was the only daughter of Lena’s sister, who died of breast cancer. Perfelia’s father was unable to cope with the needs of his Down syndrome child.

“She was one of us,” says her cousin, Salvitore Luizza, who grew up with Perfelia in the same house.

But Lena Luizza, Sal’s mother and Perfelia’s legal guardian, grew old. At 85, she lived with an ever-present oxygen tube and debilitating lung disease, which she said wore her out more than old age. It also forced her to admit she could no longer take care of Perfelia, who is unable to take care of herself. No other relatives could provide the watchfulness she needs.

So Perfelia was reluctantly placed in a group home where she could receive round-the-clock care and attend nearby special education classes during the day.

It is not easy to send a loved one to an institution. It is best not think of them as human warehouses for the dying and the slow. Families believe, because they have to, that they are doing the right thing.

Troubled social welfare system
The state Department of Human Services, despite repeated requests from The Associated Press, refused comment on Perfelia and what, if any, measures had been taken against the home.

The Association for Retarded Citizens of Warren County, a private agency which contracts with the state-licensed Belvidere and oversees its patients, also refused comment, as did the home’s new manager, hired after Perfelia left, and the state investigator assigned to Perfelia’s case.

New Jersey’s troubled social welfare system has been criticized for years, with reports of abuse and neglect. Some of the worst have occurred in institutions for children and the developmentally disabled. New Jersey passed “Danielle’s Law” in 2003, requiring health care workers to call 911 for life-threatening emergencies. It was named after Danielle Gruskowski, 32, a group home resident who died from complications caused by a high fever that went untreated. She also had severe burns on her face, allegedly caused by an employee who threw hot tea on her.

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