Girl, 14, Received Psychiatric Treatment at Riverside

District health officials and lawyers with a federally funded advocacy group for the disabled are investigating the death of an adolescent girl who had been receiving long-term psychiatric treatment at the private, for-profit Riverside Hospital in Northwest.

The 14-year-old, whose name has not been disclosed, died Friday of apparent complications from acute viral carditis, an inflammation of the heart, said officials with the city Health Department and Riverside Hospital. She had spent part of last week at Georgetown University Hospital, then was transferred Nov. 30 to Inova Fairfax Hospital for cardiac bypass surgery. She was taken off life support within 24 hours of the operation.

Lawyers with University Legal Services, the advocacy group, said they have many questions about how she fell ill at Riverside and whether the staff there sought outside medical care quickly enough as her condition declined.

"We have concerns," attorney Mary Nell Clark said.

D.C. Department of Health spokeswoman Leila Abrar said yesterday that officials are reviewing the teenager's medical records and visited Riverside to talk with staff. She said those records indicate that the girl began running a fever Nov. 22; two days later, she complained of shortness of breath and chest pain, at which point she was admitted to Georgetown. The records show that the doctors' diagnosed that her heart had become inflamed, Abrar said.

A Riverside administrator gave a similar account yesterday, adding that there had been no delay in addressing the girl's flulike symptoms. Barbara Grove, who handles communications and community education at Riverside, said the girl fell ill the Wednesday before Thanksgiving but seemed better by the next morning. She fell ill again the next day and was transported to Georgetown.

"It's a big tragedy for the staff, a big tragedy for the mother, a big tragedy for all of us," Grove said.

The hospital, on McArthur Boulevard at the edge of Georgetown, was founded in 1995 by a psychiatrist. It provides short-term acute care and months-long residential treatment for children in the District, including those in the foster care system. It averages 60 to 75 patients in its two units.

For several years, the hospital faced criticisms over its care, safety and procedures.

The girl, who Grove said had been at Riverside for six months, will be buried tomorrow.