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Why did Washington State pay 12 million dollars to a rehab center in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

Twelve million dollars: That's how much Washington state spent to send 16 patients with traumatic brain injuries to a rehabilitation center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

All of these patients had something in common: their injuries had led to behavior issues that were extremely hard to manage because there was no where to treat them in Washington. But once these patients got to Oklahoma, there was minimal oversight of their care by state officials and no plan for when they would return home.

Ross Reynolds spoke with KUOW Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins about his investigation. They are joined by Katie Walker, whose mother was in a car accident in 2010 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. She has been in Brookhaven for three years and is still there.

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