AMHERST COUNTY (WSLS 10) - The mother of a disabled Madison Heights man who died in the care of a facility in Petersburg is speaking out.
Martha Bryant said her son Tyler should never have been transferred out of the Central Virginia Training Center, or CVTC, in Amherst, and now she is fighting to get her other son Taylor moved back there.
It was an emergency decision by the Department of Health that ended the services the Bryant brothers relied on at the CVTC.
The two need 24 hour care as well as breathing and feeding tubes.
Tyler Bryant has died, and their mother feels Taylor may be in immediate danger.
Martha Bryant spoke with WSLS Wednesday at the gravesite of her son Tyler.
She was working at her job as a special education teacher last August when the ordeal began.
"I called after work and it was a social worker telling me that the commissioner was decertifying their building and we needed to look for a place to move to," said Bryant.
She called anyone she could who would help, including State Senator Steve Newman, who eventually found out why the facility kicked the Bryants out.
"We found that they had an internal audit report that came out in January that said there was a hostile working environment there, and that's the reason why they couldn't keep personnel," said Newman.
For Bryant, this was an emergency, because no other facility she knew of could offer around-the-clock care.
"The five star nursing homes start at age 55, and they're 23," said Bryant.
In January, the order came down from the state Bryant's sons would have to leave immediately, and with nowhere to go, they were taken to Hiram Davis Hospital in Petersburg.
"Tyler had a high heart rate the first night to 160, and the next day he started on antibiotics for an infection," said Bryant.
After a week, Tyler Bryant was admitted to the intensive care unit.
He only survived another two months.
Now, Martha Bryant's thoughts are with her son Taylor, who is still living at Hiram Davis.
"He's already had a near miss. we need to get him out before he meets a similar fate," said Bryant.
Bryant wants the state to reverse the decision and send her living son back to the CVTC.
Meanwhile, Newman and other legislators are calling for an investigation.
"We are asking that they consider allowing an independent group to look at some of the deaths that have occurred at hiram davis and to report back to us," said Newman.
Bryant said she is still making calls to the state government every day and it is a policy decision that for her family is life or death.
"We can either take care of them or we can kill them," said Bryant.
Newman is also working with fellow legislators to propose what he calls a two-training center solution to house the disabled individuals displaced by this and other closures.
He said each of those facilities would require a $10 million dollar commitment from the state every year.