Man died in ‘excruciating’ pain in jail after staff failed to provide medication, says lawsuit
WHERE IS THE PROTECT AND SERVE ?
David Stojcevski was taken to the Macomb County Jail to serve a 30-day sentence for failing to appear in court on a traffic ticket for careless driving. His family say he died 16 days later, having lost 50 lbs in weight and having spent that time naked in his cell – his torment seen on monitor videos.
Robert Ihrie, a lawyer for Mr Stojcevski’s brother, Vladimir Stojcevski, said that what happened to the young man “shocks the conscience.”
The family’s lawyer said the incident ‘shocks the conscience’
“Any case that involves death in a penal institution is hard and sad,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “This case is particularly hard, particularly difficult, particularly sad. It was completely avoidable.”
A lawsuit filed by Mr Stojcevski’s family alleges that officials at the Macomb County jail failed to provide him with the three medications prescribed for him in the months leading up to his incarceration — Xanax, Klonopin and oxycodone.
The first are benzodiazepine medications used to treat anxiety and drug withdrawal, while the third is used for pain relief.
The man’s brother has filed a lawsuit alleging neglect
According to the lawsuit, Mr Stojcevski was recommended for a medical detox unit after he was assessed when he entered the jail in June 2014. On June 17, 2014, he was placed in a mental health cell after a referral noted that he was, among other things, hallucinating and talking to people who were not there.
The lawsuit claims that staff from the jail and the firm Correct Care Solutions, were “deliberately indifferent” to Mr Stojcevski’s mental health and watched him “spend the final 10 days of his life suffering excruciating benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms”.
Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said he could not comment because the case involved pending litigation. County Corporation Counsel John Schapka said that “knowing the facts and circumstances of the case, I’m confident the county will prevail.”
Filed under: General Problems
Letting anyone suffer withdrawal in jail is tantamount to torture. A person in custody is completely dependent on their captors. The people who work at the jail are completely responsible for maintaining the health and well-being of those they have made their prisoners. This should be a criminal case, not a civil one, and the charge should be murder, or at the least voluntary manslaughter.
It was torture. And they watched it happen. Probably got a kick out of watching a naked drug addict suffer. As he lost weight, pound after pound, became emaciated and dehydrated, was there anyone in that whole facility who was willing to help him? Anybody who could claim the title of human being? Or did his jailers make bets to see how long he would last?
Do you think it would be any different for a pain patient in jail?
Oops…..forgot to add that they do at least give very small amounts of phenobarbital for alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal. Opioids are allowed only Pepto-Bismol after severe G.I. symptoms are present. Imodium which has a weak opiate that does not cross the blood brain barrier and is not allowed. Even patient to be transferred to the hospital are not given controlled substances except in extraordinary circumstances.
Ugh this dictation makes soooo many errors:(
This is simple the only medications that typically are completely banned in corrections as a class are controlled substances like benzodiazepines,stimulants, and opioids. Some institutions allow the benzodiazepines for staff convenience in some inmates not the inmate’s welfare. Occasionally the opioids if someone has really gotten beaten up in a fight or has come to the jail straight from the hospital with a major injury. This is not the case at least with Jefferson County’s jail in Alabama. No control substances are provided including methadone, even if the inmate has been on a high dosage of methadone maintenance for years. The deputies seem to get a great deal of pleasure out of watching people suffer from withdrawal. That’s when I was the night and we can call nurse for a hospice, one of our patients was arrested on a very old failure to appear. This gentleman was seriously ill with advanced cancer with metastases and and taking a substantial dose of morphine along with benzodiazepines and anticonvulsants to prevent seizures that resulted from his brain mets. He had walked down the street to see his grandkids playing in the park and met up with a policeman on the way after tripping on the sidewalk. One of our cities bonus was kind enough to help them up and then run him for warrants. He was probably delivered to the jail and went through severe withdrawal for almost 7 days well neither his family or our staff had any clue where he was. A missing persons report was actually filed but somehow this was not cross-referenced with the county jail roll. I don’t remember it being publicly available online at the time. We found out where he was by accident when one of the registry nurses who also works at the county hospital cared for him when he was brought in with severe dehydration after lying on the floor of the cell for days with porters occasionally mopping up vomit and diarrhea. The very ill this gentleman still had a very decent quality of life and was nowhere near the active death process and likely had several months left to live. Sadly being brought in on this very petty warrant just before the Christmas holiday (which belong to stay due to fewer staff to process the paperwork back log) greatly shorten his life and he died three days after being brought to the county hospital, less than a mile from the jail. He had all of his medications on him when he was arrested, curiously the bottles were empty once family picked up his property. The county corner and county hospital kindly did the jail a great favor and listed his cause of death as being related to his cancer and the manner of death is natural. Nor did they mention anything about his unfortunate jail stay having an impact on his untimely demise. I just don’t understand how a correctional institution can ignore a valid prescription from a healthcare provider and either discontinue the medication entirely or substitute if they see fit – as is often done with more expensive medications whether or not it is in the patient’s best interest. So many psychiatric patients did B take being taken off of medications that work well for them and placed on other medications that they do not react well to. When their behavior gets out-of-control as a result of the medication change, the inmate is punished. I don’t see how the cost savings on medication can be worth the staff hours and work Worker’s Compensation claims that result from having to house inmates in disciplinary segregation or perform cell extractions. Medical patients are known to have many complications of diabetes, asthma, and heart disease as a result of being abruptly taken off of the regular medications in favor of a less expensive medication may or may not work as well for them. Often worsening symptoms are in the word, unless they become very severe. The person who spends many years in prison is almost always much older for their age the average person and generally leaves the correctional system with multiple chronic health problems that were treated suboptimally for many years. The community standard of care that is supposedly in place in our jails and prisons seems to exist only in theory an in manuals not in practice. I hope this family takes the local government who all they are worth effects Real change that will help future inmates. Being incarcerated should not cost you your life or your health. Not only is this cruel, but it is also very expensive the society when the inmate leaves the penitentiary.
So sad!!! 🙁
If this person had been denied any other types medications, it would be considered murder.
My God! That’s terrible