Auditor opens probe of provider linked to boy’s death
An employee at an Arizona group home texted a supervisor about 9-year-old Jakob Blodgett’s elevated blood-glucose reading and was told to give him water, records show. After two missed doses of long-acting insulin, the boy was taken to a hospital and died in 2022 of complications from Type 1 diabetes. Arizona imposed no penalties on Sunshine Residential Homes, the state’s largest group home provider, in the case.
Staff caring for Blodgett told supervisors the boy had been sneaking candy and refused to take his insulin, according to records in the case. After the employee flagged the elevated blood-glucose reading, the group’s response was to give him water. Following two missed doses of the long-acting insulin the boy’s Type 1 diabetes required, he was taken to a hospital, diagnosed with brain swelling, placed on a ventilator and died in 2022 of complications from the disease.
Sunshine Residential Homes now stands at the center of a political controversy swirling as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs seeks reelection. Records show the provider made political donations beneficial to Hobbs and, months later, received a rate increase from the state for providing beds for children.
Arizona’s attorney general, a fellow Democrat, found no evidence of bribery in the relationship. Republican legislators are pressing their own questions about the timing of the donations and the rate increase. The state auditor general’s office is conducting a separate investigation.
The episode has highlighted broader questions about Arizona’s congregate-care capacity for children, training for the workers who staff those facilities, and oversight of providers and other contractors whose size gives them leverage over the state.