Doctor describes advice to Ohrenschall

Bill Gang

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 9:59 a.m.

Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall sat in court fingering a copy of the book "Out of Control" about purported abuses in the country's child protective services agencies.

She doesn't believe she should be in the courtroom of Judge Gerald Hardcastle defending herself from child-neglect allegations that could result in her 16-year-old daughter being made a ward of the court.

Neither did a dozen of Ohrenschall's supporters, including County Commissioner Myrna Williams and Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, who held a vigil Monday outside Family Court on the first day of the civil hearing.

It is clear that Ohrenschall's case isn't a traditional situation where a parent leaves a child alone or fails to provide the necessities of life, but nevertheless Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon declared it "a compelling case of neglect."

The allegations against Ohrenschall include endangering the life of her daughter, Katie Ross, by failing to obtain appropriate medical treatment for ulcerative colitis and for keeping her out of school.

There is also the allegation that Ohrenschall and Ross lived in "extreme filth and trash" in their home in Las Vegas and in Carson City motels when the Legislature was in session.

Witnesses Monday conceded that Ohrenschall loved her daughter, doted on her and agonized over her deteriorating health.

The problem, Herndon told the judge, is that despite being told by five doctors that surgery was necessary and inevitable, Ohrenschall didn't consent until the girl was near death with a perforated colon.

Ross initially was diagnosed with colitis in 1995. By New Year's Day this year, when emergency surgery was performed on her, Ross weighed less than 50 pounds.

"She looked like a concentration camp prisoner," Herndon said. "She essentially was skin and bones ... with multiple bed sores."

Ohrenschall had helped her daughter do everything she could to avoid the surgery -- primarily delving into holistic remedies.

But when the colon perforated, and Ross was just hours from death, the surgery was performed that will require the teenager to wear a colostomy bag for at least several months.

It also resulted in the intervention of authorities and the removal of the girl from Ohrenschall's home, although she was ordered returned Monday but in the legal custody of her brother, not their mother.

Hardcastle must decide if Metro Police and Clark County child abuse and neglect officers overstepped their bounds by pursuing allegations against Ohrenschall, but an exchange the judge had with one doctor didn't seem to favor the legislator.

Dr. Fuller Royal, a Las Vegas homeopath, said that on Dec. 23 Ohrenschall brought the girl -- carried by her 25-year-old brother James -- to his office and that he advised hospitalization, advice that was not taken.

Royal said they returned to his office the next day seeking alternative medicine and that he again urged hospitalization because the holistic approach wasn't working.

Still the girl wasn't hospitalized, and Royal admitted he left Las Vegas to spend the Christmas holidays at his Utah cabin.

"When do doctors get excited?" Hardcastle barked about Royal's apparent willingness to overlook a situation and not notify authorities.

"She was in horrible shape," the judge said.

"She was dying, yes," Royal conceded, although he didn't admit that death was imminent.

Speaking more rhetorically than to the doctor, Hardcastle asked, "At what point do we take over and step up as adults" to ensure proper care is given?

Dr. Troy Reyna, who performed the surgery on Ross, described her as "deathly ill" when the go-ahead was finally given for the medical procedure.

"I've seen pictures of post World War II holocaust victims and that's what I would have to say she looked like," Reyna said.

He testified that he had recommended surgery months before but that Ohrenschall said that they would try some alternative remedies before taking that step.

Reyna said that although he believed surgery was inevitable, he didn't push the issue until he determined the girl's life was at stake because he was waiting for Ohrenschall to "see the light."

Although Ohrenschall waited until the last moment to approve surgery, Reyna conceded that she "always indicated she wanted what was best for her daughter ... to be healthy. That was never a question."

When Herndon asked Reyna if he believed Ross had been "neglected by her care giver," the pediatric surgeon responded affirmatively and added that Ohrenschall was "not using good common sense" in the medical decisions.

Royal disagreed with Reyna, telling the judge that surgery ultimately might have been avoided through alternative remedies and "it's not neglectful to avoid surgery ... it's reasonable and rational."

Royal agreed, however, that when the colon became perforated, surgery was required.

In the case, Hardcastle must also decide if the allegation that Ohrenschall and her daughter lived in unsanitary conditions constitutes neglect.

The manager and a maid from the Plaza Motel in Carson City testified that when Ohrenschall and Ross stayed there from January to July 1997, during the legislative session, their room was "a pigpen."

Patricia Werner, the maid, said the housekeeping staff was lucky to be permitted into the room once every three or four weeks to clean it -- although they tried daily -- and the room had to be aired out for three days after the woman and her daughter left.

Cleanliness may be an issue for Hardcastle because Reyna said that Ross must live in a clean environment -- but not sterile -- or risk infection of the surgical wound.