$7M Settlement Reached With Private Texas Jail: A $7 million settlement was recently reached by the family of a 46-year-old woman who died while in the custody of a private Texas jail operated by LaSalle Corrections LLC.
The family’s lawsuit alleged that the woman was arrested on April 5, 2019 by Texarkana police for a probation violation and was taken to the Bi-State Jail in Texarkana, which is operated by LaSalle Corrections. The jail performed a physical examination of the woman the following day and faxed a request for information regarding her medical history to her health care provider. The jail failed to follow up with regard to the medical information request during the five weeks it took for the health care provider to provide the requested medical information. The jail learned that the woman was being treated for depression, bipolar disorder, HIV, and substance abuse, the suit said.
The woman’s husband had brought his wife’s prescription medications to the jail a few days after she arrived at the jail, which included her HIV medication. The jail staff failed to give the medications to the woman for seven days after she arrived at the jail. The family’s lawsuit alleged that the woman was not provided her medication on a regular basis thereafter, which caused her conditions to deteriorate, despite the woman’s multiple visits to the nurse at the jail and despite her husband expressing to the jail staff his concerns regarding his wife’s deteriorating medical condition.
The woman became blind and was unable to walk or stand on her own by early June 2019. She was transferred to the medical unit in the jail where she allegedly was denied food or water for a period of time and was denied access to a shower or clean clothes. The family’s lawsuit further alleged that the jail staff failed to look inside her medical observation cell despite the woman crying out in pain.
On June 10, a nurse entered the woman’s cell for the first time in 38 hours and took her blood pressure, which was abnormally high. Instead of seeking immediate medical care for the woman, the nurse left her cell and there was no evidence that the nurse told her supervisor about the woman’s condition: “At that time, she was tachycardic and suffering from a hypertensive emergency. She was blind, mentally confused, disoriented, shaky, unsteady, and so physically incapacitated that she could barely crawl. Even then, she was not taken to the hospital for another ten hours. By the time LaSalle finally called 911, it was too late to save her life,” according to the lawsuit.
If you or a loved one were injured due to the lack of appropriate medical care in jail in the United States, you should promptly seek the legal advice of a local medical malpractice lawyer in your state who handles jail medical malpractice claims and may investigate your claim and represent you or your loved one, if appropriate.
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