(soft music)
- [Bruno] Throughout time,
people with intellectual disabilities
have been treated as less than human.
In ancient times,
it was common that children with disabilities
were put to death by their parents.
If a child with a disability survived,
there were often slaves, drafted into the army, or beggars.
Today, a large percentage of people with disabilities
live in group homes and institutions,
where sexual abuse is extremely common,
along with physical abuse, and neglect.
Some of them are being made like vegetables,
because the great amount of care that they require
is not available to them.
This is because group homes and institutions
are severely underfunded.
In this film, we go in depth into one specific case,
and while it may not be the case for all disabled people,
it definitely is the case for some and needs to be heard.
- [Christina] My name is Christina Kohlfield
and I was born on March 19th, 1965 in New York City.
I was the second born of fraternal twin girls.
My sister Jill and I were born with full heads of hair.
My hair was dark brown, my skin olive colored,
my eyes almost black.
My sister was born with blonde hair,
pale skin, and blue eyes.
My sister was also born severely brain damaged.
Leaving her intellectually disabled
for the rest of her life.
My parents were devastated.
My mother went to every doctor
and tried all the latest methods for treating brain damage.
Nothing was too radical, or expensive.
But all of my mother's love and efforts couldn't heal Jill,
she couldn't make her well.
When Jill was eight,
my parents put her in an institution.
My mother emotionally drained and fatigued,
could no longer handle my sister's intense needs.
Everyone around my mother convinced her
that the best thing to do would be
to put Jill in a state home.
My father was for this, and so were friends and doctors.
Life went on and Jill for most of her life went unvisited.
In my twenties, I sometimes forgot I had a sister.
When someone would ask if I had siblings,
I would respond, "I have a brother."
I trained myself to forget about her.
In 2012, my father passed away.
And my mother and I gained full guardianship of Jill.
- [Bruno] After over 40 years
of living in group homes and institutions,
Jill moved back in with her family.
Institutional life was hard on Jill.
When she arrived in Los Angeles, she was unable to walk,
and on over 20 unnecessary medications,
being fed through a tube connected to her stomach,
and covered in psoriasis.
But let's begin with how Jill moving to an institution
affected the family.
Can you talk about the day that you took Jill
when she was a child to the institution?
- No.
- [Bruno] Why?
- It's too painful.
- [Bruno] What was it like when you got home
and she wasn't there?
- It is devastating.
- [Bruno] Did it feel like you lost a member
of your family?
- Yes, it's worse than a death.
Because you worry about her.
You don't know how she's doing,
you don't know if they're taking good care of her.
She's very vulnerable.
She's just a beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed baby.
- [Bruno] When Jill was institutionalized
as a child, - Mm-hmm.
- [Bruno] Did you feel like you lost a member
of your family?
- Yeah.
I think it was a huge loss.
I think it was an enormous loss.
I almost feel like it's probably was such a big loss,
that I just shut it down.
So, losing Jill was very difficult and...
That was my sister, and I remember loving her,
and being very close to her as a child.
And I remember having fun with her, and...
She was just gone one day and that was it.
Yeah, I don't even think,
because I'm a therapist
and I've been through therapy to tell you the truth,
I don't even think I've really come to terms
with losing Jill.
(somber piano music)
Because we acted like Jill never existed,
there's a hole that in the family that we even forgot about.
- She basically was not visited
as regularly as she should have been.
A lot of it was because it was painful to go and visit her,
and then each time that we visit her to leave her,
it was like an emotional heartbreak.
- So, I have this memory of us as a family visiting her,
but then after one visit, that was it.
We never visited again.
And I think my parents divorced.
Basically, your twin sister goes away,
gone, it never happened, don't talk about it.
And then your father leaves,
'cause your parents get divorced.
Never happened, don't talk about it.
- [Bruno] And you don't want to talk about
when you took her at all?
- It's too painful.
- [Bruno] Okay. - I didn't wanna leave her,
I had an emotional breakdown.
- I'm sure it must've hurt when Jill went away.
- [Man] Okay, we're rolling.
- Okay.
What's (indistinct)?
- [Christina] (indistinct).
- We don't even have our appropriate furniture yet,
and look like a yard sale.
We'll do this, okay.
You're dropping your glass.
Ms. Jill looking so serious.
It (indistinct) okay, then at least.
- (indistinct).
- [Missy] I won't do (indistinct).
All done, okay.
Yeah.
(indistinct chattering)
yeah, one (indistinct) here.
- Hmm?
- (indistinct) well care.
Yeah, you wanna stand up?
Yeah, yeah. (laughs)
- [Man] No.
- You wanna stand up and help me.
- [Man] Hey, that was good, that was good.
- Get up.
All right.
You wanna (indistinct) the there side of you.
Aha?
I can help you.
- [Christina] Yes, help her.
Come on, stand up one more time, okay?
What's the matter Jill?
- [Man] Yeah, she's so happy right there, yeah--
- (indistinct) out? - [Man] Just happy
right there.
- Do you want to go down for some (indistinct)?
- [Bruno] Hypothetically,
if Jill never was institutionalized and always lived at home
do you think she would be different today in any way?
- Yes, there's no doubt in my mind.
- [Bruno] How do you think she'd be different?
- She wouldn't have been injured, number one.
So she wouldn't have gotten pregnant.
So they wouldn't have done the hysterectomy, ovariectomy,
to cover it up.
During the visit in 1995,
with my grandson and her twin sister, Tina,
we noted that Joe exhibited old signs of pregnancy,
vomiting, distended stomach, swollen breasts,
every sign that I had when I was pregnant she had.
All the pathology that has been performed on Jill,
with respect to cancer, has been negative.
So why?
It's incredible, it's just criminal.
From a mother's perspective,
it just brings out all the lioness in me.
And I feel like just shouting it to the world,
you don't do this to people.
This population they're human beings, just like you and me.
- [Bruno] Why do you think they covered it up?
- Why do you think?
- [Bruno] It looks bad at them.
- Of course, it's a criminal act.
She was raped.
Somebody there, raped her.
Somebody there committed an act, a felony, of course.
- [Bruno] After her operation,
when was the next time you saw Jill?
- About a year later.
- [Bruno] And how had her health changed?
- Totally deteriorated.
She was ambulatory before she was not able to walk.
They began a regimen of drugs
where she was old groggy must of the time.
She was under over 25 daily drugs,
and several less needed drugs.
Blood test showed, she did not have any of the conditions,
that the drugs were prescribed for.
That is a fact, that is a true fact.
So, where's the Hippocratic oath, of doing no harm?
Because those drugs were harming her.
Jilly, Jilly.
You wanna si a cup?
Jilly.
Do you wanna sip a cup?
Do you want this?
Now, being down to a reduced dosage of Keppra,
And just Prevacid,
those are the only two drugs she's on, basically.
Her progress is incredible.
Jill is alert, she is enjoying.
She laughs. (laughs)
- Hmmm.
- [Bruno] Jill.
- Hmm, hmmm.
- [Bruno] Oh my gosh, Jill. (laughing)
- [Missy] It's like, she is a different person,
before she was a vegetable.
Now she's a human being, she's full of life.
She has a personality.
She's expressive, she's just a joy.
So, to actually just take away the joy of a human being.
I mean, I don't understand it.
(soft piano music)
Jilly, here comes.
Thank you.
Here catch Jilly.
- Hmmm.
- Oou! (laughs)
Here.
- Hmm, hmmm.
You're happy. (laughing)
Yes you're.
You're happy.
You look happy.
That's a happy face.
Jilly give it to me.
And I'm gonna give it back to you.
You are to give it to me.
Oh, you wanted to roll it to Bruno.
She wants to roll it to Bruno...
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness, she can roll it.
Look at that, Bruno.
Ooou! (laughing)
- [Bruno] Jill, don't do it.
- [Missy] Don't do it.
- [Bruno] Don't do it Jill. - [Missy] Don't do it.
Oh my God. (laughing)
- [Bruno] Jill.
- [Missy] I have to go get it.
Oh my God!
(giggles)
Oops!
Throw it to mommy.
Hi, hey Jilly.
Throw it to me, throw it to me, throw it.
To me.
- [Bruno] Throw it to mom. (laughs)
Uuh!
- Are you gonna throw it there again? (giggles)
(soft music)
The reason that they state that she was put on the G tube
was because she had aspiration pneumonia.
And she needed to temporarily until her lungs cleared,
be fed through a G-tube.
(soft music)
We had a meeting in January, and I requested that
a modified barium swallow test be administered,
to determine whether she could be taken off the G-tube.
- First, they gave her...
I can't remember the things like pudding, like soft stuff.
And of course like, so then you see the machine,
and you literally see the whole thing.
Her jaw is chewing.
Then you see the tongue does its undulating thing
and the food swallows,
and then goes down the throat, boom, no problem.
And behind the scenes we're like, "Yeah, rockstar."
And yet after the second test,
they've still didn't wanna feed her.
- Yes, out of the six residents,
when we left, five of them were on G-tubes.
Since the early part of January Jill has been,
eating, drinking, everything orally.
The removal of the G2 has incredibly improved her health.
(uplifting music)
- She's playing with her food and then--
- She's playing, she's playing--
- She can't even-- She's playing with it.
She's saying it's okay.
It's like talking, it's okay-- - [Christina] If she does it.
- [Tina] And it's okay,
it's kind of a developmental stage, so. (laughing)
(soft music)
- All medical data, indicates that
as soon as a patient is capable of feeding orally,
that is the best for the patient.
G-tubes are intended as a temporary solution.
So it has been a big improvement to her health.
(drums playing)
Jill, started walking unassisted
when she was approximately two and a half years old.
Prior to that, she would kind of crawl.
And she would kind of walk
with the assistance of Glen and Tina.
They were very sweet to her and they would help her.
When she was two and half years old,
she pretty much started walking unassisted,
but still she couldn't go far.
So it wasn't until she was about three years old,
that you really took stride on her own.
After that she just walked.
In 1995, she had a hysterectomy and oophorectomy.
And after that, they started giving her a lot of drugs,
which made her very groggy.
- Here, let's walk through that, go ahead.
Walk to the wheelchair even.
- [Man] Oops! - Okay, go ahead.
Yeah, that's it, (indistinct) back down.
Okay.
- So she started falling,
and she started really having issues with balance.
And after that, because she injured herself,
because of the fact that she was over medicated,
they started restraining her.
The result of the restrain was basically that,
by the time that we brought her
to California November 14th, 2013,
she could not even stand on her own.
- No it's fine, let's go.
(indistinct), oops, take it down slowly Jill.
(indistinct) a bit too fast.
You're killing it, hold on, let's stop for a second.
Jill, let's turn your body.
(indistinct) left, right, left.
Right, left.
- According to the podiatrist, one of her tendons
has been shortened from lack of fuse and restraint.
So we're hoping, that with physical therapy, with care,
with the new exercise that she's doing, the walking,
that we will be able to get her back to the point,
where she's walking alone on her own.
- [Bruno] She at first put most of her weight on me
and we would walk around the house just for exercise
to get her...
So she wasn't sitting all day.
So slowly but surely, Jill began getting better.
And she started putting less weight on me
and depending more on her own body weight to support her.
- hmm. - [Missy] (indistinct) right.
- Hmm, hmm. (foot tapping)
hmm, hmm.
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hhm.
- And her ability to now have better balance
and better coordination.
Again, with her nephew Bruno,
she stood by herself for about 20 seconds, balanced.
- You did it Jill.
You're standing by yourself.
- So, this is hope,
that she will be able to again walk on her own.
- And for me, that was another breakthrough point,
in that she had found her balance.
- Her leg muscles have tongued up.
When she first...
Yes they have, aha.
When you first started living here, Jill,
your legs were like sticks.
(soft-piano music)
Her legs now have more tone, and are more muscular.
- [Missy] Her legs have become stronger.
Her legs are no longer stick-thin from atrophy.
So she's building strength on her legs.
And she's gonna be walking pretty soon.
- So she began balancing on her own,
and eventually she took a few steps on her own.
You don't thin you're waling by yourself?
- [Missy] Yeah, it gets so wonderful. (clapping)
jill is so wonderful. (laughing)
- So Jill continued to improve,
and every day she would take a few more steps on her own.
And eventually, she was able to walk around the house,
completely by herself without me holding her.
(soft-piano music)
(clapping)
- I think you're (indistinct).
Mwah!
- Good job.
You did well, I'm proud of yourself.
- Hmm. - Yeah.
(soft-piano music)
- I got you. - Hmm, hmm.
Hmm, hmm.
(soft-piano music)
- [Bruno] Because Jill can now easily stand
and walk by herself,
it is much easier for her mother to take care of her,
potentially adding years
for Jill to be taken care of at home.
(soft-piano music)
What we hope people take away from this film,
is that Jill is not the only one
being mistreated in group homes.
Jill is an example, of what treatment is like.
But with time and effort the negative damage,
can be reversed.
When you have a child,
you sign up to care for them for 18 years.
But when you have a child with an intellectual disability,
you have to care for them for the rest of your life,
or put them in an institution,
where they will most likely be mistreated in every respect,
physically, sexually, et cetera.
That has to change.
The only way that will change is to realize,
that they are more normal than we perceive,
and have a lot in common with us.
(soft-piano music)
I've learned that we are all the same as Jill,
that everyone has disabilities that are just as equal.
People with intellectual disabilities
require the same amount of love,
they require what you and I do.
But, we sometimes forget that because they're different.
Some have disabilities that seem frightening,
but they won love as much as we all do.
And when you give it to them,
the reward is greater than any I've experienced in my life.
(soft-piano music)