On February 6, 2024, a Bronx medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in the amount of $6.1 million for the family of a man who was incarcerated at Rikers Island in 2017 at which time he became the victim of a botched heart surgery that led to his death two days after he was sent home on compassionate medical release. The verdict was against Correctional Health Services, a division of NYC Heath + Hospitals, which is self-described on its website as “one of the nation’s leading correctional health care systems in quality of and innovations to care and access from pre-arraignment through compassionate release.”
The inmate, who was awaiting trial on drug charges that were subsequently dropped, had heart surgery at Bellevue Hospital while under the care of Correctional Health Services. The family’s New York medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit alleged that the man slid off the operating room table and fell to the floor, where he suffered cardiac arrest during which his heart stopped for over eight minutes. The medical staff who resuscitated the man ordered an MRI of his heart, which was never done. The inmate also required a leg amputation due to necrosis and suffered a pierced esophagus, which led to his body shutting down.
One of the juror’s stated after the verdict, “At the end of the day you can send ten thousand specialists to testify, but right is right and wrong is wrong. The defense was busy trying to rule out that somebody made a mistake. You can’t tell me that neglecting to perform the MRI on his heart as was instructed and allowing him to “slip” off the operating table are normal medical protocols.”
The man’s son stated after the verdict, “What happened to my father, who was perfectly healthy when he was originally incarcerated, was gruesome. They turned him into a rotting corpse and he had to live out the final two months of his life like that. No one ever explained to us what was wrong with him. They tried to cover up everything. At every point our father and our family have been disrespected.”
The jurors apparently were outraged by the defense testimony during trial that the inmate was ambulatory and was able to feed and bathe himself while in the hospital following his surgery.
Rikers Island Wrongful Death Settlements
The highest wrongful death settlement involving a Rikers Island inmate who died while in custody or shortly after medical release was $5.9 million paid to the family of Layleen Polanco, who had an epileptic seizure and later died after being ignored by the correctional facility’s medical staff in June 2019.
In 2016, $5.75 million was awarded to the family of Bradley Ballard, who was lying on the floor of his cell, crying for help for seven days while he was dying in 2014.
New York City reportedly paid an average of $1,423,416.66 per death over a ten-year period for inmates who died while in custody under the Department of Correction or shortly after medical release. Since 2012, New York City reportedly has paid $64,053,750.00 in settlements to 45 families of people who have died while in Department of Correction custody, or just after being medically or compassionately released.
If you or a loved one were harmed as a result of prison medical negligence in New York or in another U.S. state, you should find a New York medical malpractice attorney, or a medical malpractice attorney in your U.S. state, who may investigate your prison medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a prison medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your state who may assist you.
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