Family sues Holt International over deceptive adoption practices | Exclusive 21%
By Haleigh Kochanski32%
7/31/2026, 4:04:10 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Appeal to Emotion, and Availability Heuristic, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 25% saturation with 576 hits. Analysis detected 2,252 faulty-reasoning hits from 2,302 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 28.7% and a BS Rank of 21% (22,322 of 27,985 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 79.80% of the article peer group.
A Pennsylvania family has sued Eugene-based nonprofit Holt International Children's Services, the largest international adoption agency in the world, alleging they were coerced into adopting a child from Thailand with severe psychiatric and behavioral health needs.
The adoption has led to unethical treatment of the child and ongoing emotional distress, financial loss and liabilities for the family related to the child's medical care and treatments, the suit alleges.
The 58-page civil complaint, initially filed on Sept. 5, 2025, in Pennsylvania, was assigned to U.S.
District Court Judge Mustafa T.
Kasubhai in Eugene on July 22.
Plaintiffs in the case are Benjamin Irwin and Angela Colasanti, who are demanding Holt "pay for its abuse and exploitation," breach of duty, and disregard for the child's best interests.
The Irwin-Colasanti family claim because they've received so little support from Holt International, they've had to institutionalize the child, who was sedated with Benadryl when she was brought to the United States in 2023.
The family says they have endured numerous emergencies, hospitalizations, daily violent outbursts and are now aware of previously undisclosed, expensive medical and psychiatric diagnoses, according to the lawsuit.
Those diagnoses include Turner Syndrome, Hyperlipidemia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD), an anxiety disorder, primary language disruption, resolved latent tuberculosis infection and H Pylori infection, reactive attachment disorder and Hashimoto's.
"Right now, a child from Thailand is stuck in a residential treatment facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, 9,000 miles from the place she was born," the complaint says.
"She has been there for 21 months.
There is no plan for her discharges, placement or long-term care."
The Irwin-Colasanti family says the lawsuit's allegations are common practices that other families adopting through Holt International have experienced.
Per the complaint, multiple families across the U.S. attempted to adopt a child through Holt, only to later discover the child had severe medical, psychological and behavioral complications that Holt misrepresented or failed to disclose.
Irwin and Colasanti say they feel a moral, personal and ethical responsibility to act in the best interest of the child.
By filing the lawsuit, they hope for proper interventions, treatment and placement that leads the child to a safe and peaceful life.
Her 'last hope': Child exhibits concerning behaviors in Thailand
To facilitate its international adoption business, Holt establishes, controls and collaborates with numerous foreign organizations to identify or obtain information about prospective adoptive children.
One such entity is the Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF) in Thailand, which provides services to impoverished and underserved children in Thailand, including foster care, education and welfare services, according to the lawsuit.
After submitting an application for adoption with Holt International in 2021, Irwin and Colasanti were matched with a then 7-year-old girl, referred to in court documents as "K.R.," who was available for adoption through the Holt Thailand Special Needs Program.
Holt described the children in the program as having "minor to moderate physical or developmental needs."
K.R. resided at the Songkhla Children's Home, a government-run orphanage in Songkhla in southern Thailand.
She was visited by both HSF and Holt staff before being made available for adoption through the special needs program.
HSF staff said K.R. had ADHD, which improved with medication.
They also claimed she had a stable, good temper, and had no history of physical altercations with friends while on medication.
The suit alleges that was later determined to be false.
Irwin and Colasanti claim they made clear to Holt International they could not accept a child that exhibited dangerous behaviors because they didn't have the resources, skills or capacity to care for a child with such needs.
They decided to move forward with the adoption based on Holt's description of K.R. and signed a Family Service Plan.
In the event of disruption of the adoption and placement process, Holt would assume custody of the child and facilitate the provision of childcare or any other social service pending an alternative placement, according to the service plan.
Irwin and Colasanti were approved to adopt K.R. on June 18, 2021.
They signed a placement agreement that expressly stated Holt would explore other types of placements and resources for the child, including foster and institutional care.
Holt, however, is not licensed to provide foster care or institutional care services in Pennsylvania.
Irwin and Colasanti say they were unaware of this when they entered into the placement agreement.
After years of waiting, Irwin, Colasanti and their adopted daughter from China traveled to Thailand to meet their new family member in April 2023.
However, Holt misrepresented and distorted key information about K.R. concerning her medical, psychological and behavioral complications, the complaint says.
Within the first few weeks while still in Thailand, the family says K.R. attempted to strangle Irwin and Colasanti, attempted to jump from an 11-story hotel balcony, destroyed property, attempted to run away, and repeatedly engaged in self-harm by banging her head against furniture.
Her behavior became so dangerous she needed to be physically restrained by Holt social workers.
Holt employees allegedly instructed the family to ignore K.R.'s behavior and downplayed the severity of her situation.
They told the family they were K.R.'s "last chance" and "only hope."
They also told the family that should they refuse to take K.R. with them to the U.S., she would have to return to the Songkhla Children's Home Orphanage, which the family believed to be a dangerous, unsanitary, abusive and predatory environment for children.
"Holt repeatedly pressured and coerced adoptive families into finalizing their adoptions before offering help and resources," the lawsuit alleges.
Self-harm, multiple hospitalizations and no support
Irwin and Colasanti arrived in Pennsylvania on May 12, 2023.
Over the course of two days, K.R.'s aggression and violence, both toward herself and the family, escalated.
She was hospitalized at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she remained until May 25.
According to the complaint, Irwin and Colasanti initiated discussions with Holt about alternative placement options for K.R.
Holt began internal conversations concerning the potential repatriation of K.R. to Thailand around the same time.
K.R.'s behaviors worsened at the hospital and she was diagnosed with latent tuberculosis, which meant she couldn't be discharged to a short-term psychiatric facility due to the virality of the infection and had to go home with the family.
Hospital staff advised the family to contact a local crisis unit if K.R.'s situation continued to escalate.
However, because there was no plan established for K.R's long-term care, they learned there was no available local crisis unit or center in their area.
This mean they either had to call 911 in a crisis or cycle from one medical discharge to the next.
K.R. lived in the family's home from May 25 to June 23 and had several behavioral and psychiatric outbursts.
She allegedly hit, kicked and bit family members, threw furniture, sought weapons, urinated inside the home, attacked family members while they were asleep, attempted to push a family member down a flight of stairs and ran out into the street in an attempt to escape.
Irwin and Colasanti say due to K.R.'s behavior, "safety in the home became a full-time operation."
They added double locks to all interior doors and triple locks to all exterior doors.
Redundant locks were also added to all windows.
Irwin was forced to take short-term leave from work because of the frequent disruptions in the household and their older daughter had to be granted an exemption by her high school due to her inability to complete courses necessary to graduate.
Regardless of the family's troubles, Holt did nothing, the lawsuit alleges.
The organization's first post-placement visit to the family's home was scheduled for June 23.
After observing K.R.'s extreme behaviors, Holt's agent advised she be hospitalized again.
K.R. was checked into the children's hospital for a second time.
"As previously discussed, our family intends to disrupt the adoption of K.R. from Thailand," Irwin and Colasanti wrote in a letter to Holt on June 28.
"We have done, and will continue to do, all that we can to help K.R. gain positive momentum for a change in the trajectory of her life."
On July 6, Holt provided the family with a draft "Disruption Services Agreement," but the suit says an employee advised them not to sign it.
The agreement would have required Irwin and Colasanti to "pay all costs of temporary foster care" for K.R. and included no placement plan for the child, the suit alleges.
The family then drafted letters to the Thai Red Cross Society's Children's Village, the U.S.
Department of State and Thailand Department of Children and Youth requesting K.R. be repatriated, which Holt determined at the time to be in the child's best interest, but Holt never forwarded the letters, the complaint says.
K.R. was forcibly discharged under sedation from the children's hospital on Aug.
11.
The hospital threatened Irwin and Colasanti with criminal charges should they choose to not take the child, despite her increasing psychiatric condition, the suit says.
The Chester County Office of Children, Youth and Families also refused to intervene, stating directly to Holt it was the organization's responsibility to provide support.
K.R. was then transported nearly two hours away to Lehigh Valley Health Network's Emergency Psychiatric Department, her third hospitalization.
Upon her arrival, K.R. allegedly attacked hospital staff and other patients.
She was restrained with straps, sedated fully and placed in a locked emergency unit.
Over the course of three days, Lehigh Valley physicians told the family that K.R.'s behaviors and needs were beyond their hospital's capabilities.
K.R. was discharged again on Aug.
14.
The family drove roughly five hours across Pennsylvania to take K.R. to Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) in Pittsburgh.
K.R. was again placed in a locked emergency unit, according to the complaint.
She required frequent restraint, seclusion and rescue medications.
She also continued to attack doctors, nurses, security guards and other hospital patients, the suit says.
"Crucially, it was around this time that Plaintiffs were informed by a WPH psychiatrist that this level of behavior and dysregulation was K.R.'s baseline condition," the complaint says.
The family was told K.R.'s behaviors could be controlled in an incredibly restrictive environment.
They were told by physicians to stop visiting K.R. for several months.
While at WPH, K.R. was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which a female does not have the usual pair of X chromosomes, on Nov.
26.
During her roughly four-month stay at the hospital, K.R. was referred to additional healthcare providers and residential treatment facilities across Pennsylvania until repatriation could be executed by Holt.
All refused.
On Dec.
5, K.R. was transported by ambulance to Woods Services, a residential treatment facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, which agreed to temporarily house the child until she could be repatriated to Thailand.
She remained at the facility, as of the September 2025 filing, in an environment not conducive to short or long-term care.
Meanwhile, the Thai government told Holt the only possible repatriation plan available to K.R. was her return to Songkhla Orphanage, a place the family says Holt representatives knew to be an abusive and hostile environment for kids.
A physician at the children's hospital told Irwin and Colasanti she could not ethically recommend K.R.'s repatriation due to her acute and highly specialized medical needs, including hormone therapy, growth hormone and specialized lifetime medical management care.
They also told the family K.R. was at risk of a potentially fatal cardiac event due to her Turner Syndrome diagnosis, which requires life-long monitoring.
On Feb.
21, 2024, Holt officially withdrew its request for K.R. to be repatriated.
According to the complaint, K.R.'s placement at Woods is funded by Community Care Behavioral Health, a Medicaid management agency, amounting to at least $30,000 per month.
The funding for her care was set to expire on Nov.
23, 2025.
"At the time of this complaint, Holt still has not performed any direct assessment of K.R., nor has it determined her available placement options or evaluated her best interest in any way or at any time," the complaint says.
To the family's knowledge, Holt has fired all employees who were directly involved in placing K.R. or they have resigned.
On Aug. 1, 2025, under threat of litigation, Holt filed an application for a Private Dependency Petition for K.R. in Chester County.
Those proceedings were ongoing when the lawsuit was filed.
Holt contends family still financially responsible for K.R.
The Irwin-Colasanti family is seeking declaratory judgement regarding the nature of financial obligations for K.R.'s care.
Irwin and Colasanti argue their financial obligations under the Placement Agreement with respect to K.R. concluded as of the date they "disrupted" the adoption process, while Holt contends the family remains financially responsible for the child.
In alleging intentional or fraudulent misrepresentation and non-disclosure, the family seeks compensatory damages in excess of $75,000, punitive damages and costs of attorney's fees.
Due to emotional distress, the Irwin-Colasanti family has been forced to consult with and be treated by several physicians and mental health care providers, resulting in at least $25,000 worth of expenses and a loss of income around $150,000.
The family alleges Holt also breached contract on several occasions, violated the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection law, which prohibits "any person" from employing "unfair or deceptive acts of practices," and were negligent in failing to provide the family with truthful, complete, and accurate information regarding K.R. and her past.
The Register-Guard has reached out to Holt International for comment but did not receive a response as of this article's publication.
A.
Spencer Osborne said their law firm, Philadelphia-based Montgomery, McCraken, Walker and Rhoads LLP, will continue to represent Irwin and Colasanti in the Oregon case.
Because litigation remains pending, attorneys declined to comment on K.R.'s placement, condition or other matters beyond the allegations set forth in the complaint.
Speakers
3speakers4.9%attributed speech2,190writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageBenjamin Irwin
77 attributed words69% of attributed speech66% writer coverage
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