Third in a regular series. See Dear Gov. Newsom: People are dying in the Rehab Riviera. Do something. and Dear Gov. Newsom: Their daughter’s been swallowed by California’s rehab monster
Hey, Gov. Newsom:
Today’s story is hard to hear, but terribly important. It’s about Frankie Taylor, who was all of 19 when he overdosed at the Lighthouse Treatment Center in Anaheim.
His parents want you to know that Taylor is far more than how he died. The sweet, sensitive type, Taylor loved the stage. He did magic tricks. In fifth grade, delivered a dramatic reading of Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” entirely from memory. Bought an electric guitar 10 days before the school talent show, taught himself to play Johnny Cash/9 Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” and performed it (in black top hat!) to riotous applause.
He was Peter Pan in the community play. Poured himself into original folk-rock songs that detailed a painful, but hopeful, journey. Volunteered with the church youth group. He was an incurable romantic, always had a girlfriend, and consulted his parents on the most thoughtful gifts to bestow upon his paramours.
Taylor, of Oregon, was found unresponsive in his closet shortly after the morning therapy session at a Lighthouse facility on Pearl Street. The official cause of death was “acute polydrug intoxication,” due to the combined toxic effects of fentanyl, narcotic analgesics and anti-depressants, according to the autopsy. That he died of drug poisoning in a state-licensed addiction treatment center — where his dad urged him to go for help — is, to his parents, the cruelest irony.
Seems that since 2014 at least two other deaths have happened at Lighthouse facilities, according to state documents. His parents didn’t know that because California keeps this information buried. There’s no simple, quick way to figure out if a provider has been connected to a death, or deaths, or has been the subject of complaints, or how a provider might have responded to…
Read the full article here
