In the final months of his life, Kenneth Hass lived in a filthy seclusion room at Oregon State Hospital.
His access to the room’s bathroom was usually locked, a step staffers took to prevent him from jumping off the sink counter and onto the floor. Garbage, feces and urine often filled his room, according to records and his sister, Sierra Hass of Springfield. After she became his legal guardian in late 2024, she visited her brother in the state-run psychiatric hospital in Salem before he died there March 18, at age 25.
Staffers placed a towel along the bottom of the room’s door to keep the odor from drifting into their work area where they observed him, Sierra Hass said. Whenever she visited, she did her best to comfort him, speaking to him through a window, unable to hug him…