Lawsuit: Indifference by medical staff at Forsyth jail led to woman’s death
A lawsuit filed in Forsyth County court alleges that a private healthcare company and medical staff at the local jail displayed deliberate indifference, causing the death of a woman awaiting trial in 2014.
A lawsuit filed in Forsyth County court last week alleges that medical staff at Forsyth County jail acted with deliberate indifference, causing the death of a pregnant woman who was undergoing withdrawal from opiates while awaiting a hearing on charges of prescription drug fraud in 2014.
The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 17 by the estate of Jen McCormack, names Correct Care Solutions — a Tennessee-based healthcare company with extensive contracts in detention facilities across the country — as defendant.
McCormack’s unexpected death at Baptist Hospital after being found unresponsive in the jail in downtown Winston-Salem first came to light in a series of articles [1, 2, 3] published by Triad City Beat in 2015 that included details of her deteriorating health during the 16 days of her detention while calling into question an official narrative suggesting she died as a result of a hunger strike.
McCormack’s death certificate, which is cited in the lawsuit, notes an “uncertain contributory role of reported intent to starve self v. deficient pre-emptive custodial intervention.”
Meanwhile, on Aug. 18, the US Justice Department announced that it will gradually phase out contracts with private prison providers, noting among other factors that “they do not provide the same level of safety and security” as those directly administered by the government. A review of inmate medical records by the Nation that focused on 11 immigrant-only contract prisons, including one in west Texas where Correct Care Solutions was the medical provider, found “prison medical units repeatedly failing to diagnose patients correctly despite obvious and painful symptoms, as well as the use of under-qualified workers pressed to operate at the borders of their legal scope of practice.” The investigative report, published in February, also said the files showed “men dying of treatable diseases — men who very likely would have survived had they been given access to adequate care.”
The lawsuit filed in Forsyth County court last week by McCormack’s estate fills in critical gaps about her access to medication in the jail and about concerns raised by an obstetrics nurse at an off-site clinic as to whether her deteriorating condition warranted her hospitalization.
McCormack had received Subutex — a brand name for the opioid-withdrawal medication buprenorphine — during a stay at Forsyth Medical Center prior to her arrest, according to the lawsuit. She also received Zofran to treat nausea. McCormack had wanted to receive treatment for her addiction to prescription drugs at an inpatient facility, but because no beds were available she planned to go home and begin outpatient rehabilitation, according to the lawsuit. Instead, she was arrested for multiple charges of felony prescription-drug fraud and booked in jail.
McCormack experienced nausea and vomiting for much of her time in jail, complaining of dizziness and chest pain, and exhibited lethargy and disorientation that worsened over time. The lawsuit alleges that although Zofran was ordered to treat her nausea, it was only administered to her once. The complaint alleges, “As a result of her uncontrolled nausea, decedent was unable to take many of the medications that were prescribed for her symptoms of opioid withdrawal, anxiety disorder, depression, and prenatal vitamins for her unborn baby.”
The lawsuit alleges that Registered Nurse Miriam Cornatzer Hauser and Nurse Practitioner Emma Aycoth, who worked in the medical unit at the jail at the time of McCormack’s detention and who are named as individual defendants in the lawsuit, and other members of the nursing staff “failed to properly and adequately assess decedent’s signs, symptoms and her severely deteriorated condition.”
The complaint alleges that Cornatzer and Aycoth violated McCormack’s constitutional rights “by intentionally, willfully, maliciously and with conscious and deliberate indifference, failing to secure adequate and reasonable medical care for decedent when they subjectively knew or should have known that decedent had an objectively serious medical need and faced a substantial risk of harm, by disregarding such risk of harm and by failing to take reasonable measures that were readily available to avoid that risk.”
The complaint goes on to say that the two nurses “had actual knowledge that decedent had failed for several days to take in and retain amounts of food and/or liquid sufficient to sustain life, as a result was exhibiting a seriously declining physical condition, and required immediate medical attention and intervention.
“Decedent’s condition would have been diagnosed by a physician as mandating treatment and/or was so obvious that even a lay person would easily recognize the necessity of medical attention,” the lawsuit continues. “Defendants RN Cornatzer and NP Aycoth failed to notify physician staff or otherwise secure reasonable and necessary medical attention for decedent. Their failure to do so and deliberate indifference ultimately led to her death.”
The lawsuit charges that the company’s cost-cutting policies were “a moving force” in Jen McCormack’s death.
Aycoth declined to comment and Cornatzer could not be reached for this story.
The lawsuit accuses Correct Care Solutions of maintaining “policies, practices and/or customs” that constituted deliberate indifference to McCormack’s serious medical needs and that “were a direct and proximate cause” of the nursing staff’s conduct.
The lawsuit charges that the company’s cost-cutting policies were “a moving force” in McCormack’s death, while alleging that “CCS has stated that it is committed to measures that minimize the need to transport inmates offsite.”
Jim Cheney, a spokesman, said Correct Care Solutions would not be able to comment because the case is under litigation.
The lawsuit alleges that “misconduct of nursing staff” at Forsyth County jail and other detention facilities served by Correct Care Solutions was “widespread,” adding that at least seven inmates, including McCormack, have died at the local jail “due to inadequate or improper medical care.”
Correct Care Solutions, along with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, is currently defending itself against a lawsuit filed by the family of Dino Vann Nixon, a man who died in the jail in 2013. The lawsuit alleges that medical staff refused to provide Nixon with Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication also known as benzodiazepine. A report by a local medical examiner found that his death “was related to withdrawal from benzodiazepine.”
Despite the finding by the medical examiner, the defendants deny that Nixon’s death was related to withdrawal from the medication, while maintaining that he received appropriate care.
Correct Care Solutions also provides medical services in the Guilford County detention center. A woman named Ellin Schott who had been arrested for panhandling died at Cone Hospital after her health rapidly deteriorated during a brief stay in one of the jails in downtown Greensboro. A local medical examiners report chronicled medical staff’s apparent unwillingness to provide Schott with her prescribed anti-seizure medication and concluded that the immediate cause of death was “complications of prolonged seizure activity.”
According to the lawsuit filed in Forsyth County court last week, McCormack reported to the nursing staff on the fifth day of her detention that she was weak and dizzy, that she had been vomiting, and that the anti-nausea medication she had been receiving “is not sufficient.”
The lawsuit alleges that Dr. Alan Rhoades assessed that McCormack was apparently fainting, further concluding that she was exhibiting “drug seeking behaviors.” The complaint continues, “Decedent had been placed on Vicodin because CCS did not have access to Subutex. Dr. Rhoades ordered that Vicodin dose be decreased and ordered, ‘no change in management otherwise,” with the doctor emphasizing the first two words in all capitals.
Rhoades’ LinkedIn page identifies him as the medical director for the Forsyth County jail, along with the three Guilford County detention centers. Rhoades could not be reached for comment for this story.
The next day, according to the lawsuit, McCormack visited an OB/GYN at a clinic off site from the jail. “The obstetrical nurse contacted NP Aycoth expressing concern about decedent seeming drugged and drowsy and because decedent had vomited ginger ale she had been given,” the lawsuit alleges. “The obstetrical nurse questioned whether decedent should be hospitalized, and NP Aycoth instructed the obstetrical nurse to have decedent returned to the jail.”
Later that day, the lawsuit alleges that despite discovering that McCormack had vomited in her wash basin back in her cell and was struggling to eat, Aycoth failed to report those developments to physician staff.
“After September 9, 2014, nursing staff made no assessment of blood pressure or vital signs until September 13, 2014,” the lawsuit alleges. “Meanwhile, decedent was becoming more and more dehydrated due to continued nausea and vomiting. Nursing staff made no measurement of decedent’s food and water intake or output except for one notation of water intake that was made on September 13, 2014. Decedent was becoming at high risk for a serious and significant dehydration setting the stage for injury to her brain, kidneys and heart that did, in fact, cause a severe downward spiral in decedent’s condition, including changes in cognition, damage to her kidneys placing her at high risk for kidney failure, and culminating in a cardiac arrest that led to hypoxic brain injury and death.”
Filed under: General Problems
Also remember, all this happened in the JAIL; before she was convicted of a single crime. She was presumed innocent every second that she was there. We are going to fight hard for her. -SWG
The public despises the expense of drug rehabilitation for drug addicts and alcoholics. You get what you pay for John Q Public.
Rob,,,omg,,,your poor wife,,my god,,their gonna kill her,,,just like this poor young women,they willfully will kill her,,,I know it would literally be impossible for u to video tape all this willfull torture forced upon your wife,,,but if u know of anyone u can trust to video tape all this,,there is something called a ,”spy pen,” on ebay u can use or even have someone use their I phone ,,anything that records,,,,get them recorded tortureing your poor wife,,,Jesus Christ what has this country become,,the inhumanity is worse then animals,,,,even animals have compassion for their young,,,and each other,,,,Rob I feel soooo bad for u and your wife,,,it is heartbreaking reading your comment,,,it truly is,,,,,,I hope you can find some doctor somewhere that will treat her and u w/the respect,diginity and compassion every single human being deserves on this earth,,,what hell is wrong w/this government,klondyne all of them for creating such a cruel inhumane society towards the medically ill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,,maryw
Soo sorry I see at the bottom of your comment u have recorded all of this,,,,,,geez,,,,keep recording all of it,,,,hopefully for the day we can find someone to represent us all,,,for the United States of America willfull torture and genocide onto the medically ill in this country,,,,,mary
Disgusting. This same INDIFFERENCE to medical necessity, is happening in many ways. How did the one family get a lawyer and who? Do you know the attorney name, please? Why are pain clinics and hospitals, letting ones go cold turkey without their normal prescribed meds? They act like it is no big deal, and it can kill. What does one do in these situations, for when you speak up, they are aggro and also libel and lie in medical records. My wife was stranded by medical transport, as usual. She has been having 7-10 seizures a week, left stranded in these seizures states. Last week, after grueling hours on the phone, while stranded; she again, missed her cardio and does not have the new low blood pressure medicine the cardio prescribed a month ago. The dr staff were too involved in her transport issue, and was not put on system. She ended up at the drs cardiac urgent care center, by time the ride came past five. The dr went out to patient waiting room, refusing to see her for over 45 minutes. My wife kept saying to stop refuse me service, cardio said to come, I’ve had many seizure and cannot take this duress; please call cardio and get my new orthostatic med and I need zofran shot as my zofran med is nkt stopping nausea vomit all week. It took dr over two hours to give zofran and he gave the lowest dose. They made her lay on her back, inducing the nausea and vomiting, as medical is to.lay on side, during and after seizures. They then made her stand up for x-rays and she seized and collapsed. Aggressively, they kept dragging her up and yelling at her. The dr then yelled at her and told her he is calling the ambulance if she does not sit up. He also had kept mentioning pain and pain meds the whole visit in this accusing manner; when she repeatedly said her visit was for cardio, cardio meds, and zofran shots..As she could muster, she walked out and again collapsed on the curb. Med transport kept saying they would come, shed wait and hour, call, and they said her ride cancelled. She did not get home till 130 am. THIS is what my wife endures weekly. She still does not have her heart meds , regardless how many times I call the heart dr, nor has the ILLEGAL way they refused her access at urgent care, refused treatment needs she came for, and very UNLAWFULLY , dangerously did all that during seizures and after. Any suggestions, I have had it. I am terrified of my wife to go anywhere wirh medical as terrified she is not able to get her Ada title iv access, nor right to exercise grievance. All from OIG and down have been repeatedly contacted, news ignores and our life is hell and dangerous, due to this. Exactly, what’s going g on to inmates above, is goingnon to my federally disabled wife. My wife would be running a store and an asset to community; yet instead is constantly relapsed, worse, high risk for mortality and it would be murder. I cannot find an attorney. I have even contacted the nation REKNOWNED lawyers in public health law, whistle blowing, Ada discrimination, personal.injury, civil rights and not onlundo they refuse to take the case; are rude as can be, yet they mislead and take the data. Dr. Jay Wolfson is one fake attorney in public health law. He is a dr and attorney, heads three university departments and on NIH board. He told us to text the evidence, coldly turned us down, then texted cease and desist! What a snake. Debra Katz, DC, whistleblower attorney, just as snake, and helps corporate Canaries in way less life risk then ours. We have video recorded all.of this and trying to make a movie. As black.lives matrer is focusing on police killings; more disabled and more blacks are being murdered by abuse and indifference as federal.laws, contracts and ADA violated. Shows why the VA scandal.is nit resolved as it would expose the multi tiered genocide on disabled. What can I do? My wife will die. Alot of her disabled friends have diedbor such severe strokes and hesrt attacks they are in RicknScoot nursing homes. Also, I pulled up a research paper of disabled being restrained in hospitals to nursing homes, including children and dying of cardiac to asphyxiation. And found that there is no required mabdate to report and monitor restraining deaths. Ones even reported a year later. I see that if one does not have family or friends that pursue, the disabled person is abusedbin violations more and ddesth never investigated. And this is America?If we do not unite on all these issues, it’s going to continue and worsen and its already very bad. Aside, is it true that pain med scripts can be three months; for why is my wife unable to get three months as her doctors are very aware of her transport issue. They ignore that my wife is retaliated and put with illegal immigrant car companies that are very aggressive and intimidating as we are ignored our request for legal Yellow Cab. Is anyone else going through this? We have met many locally in our area, and others in the state from parents who cannot drive and they cannot get their very sick and disabled children to medical. The governor pretends he does not know, but we have called and written him, Bonding, Elizabeth Dude director HHS and more to no avail, but violating rudeness. Never in my life have I seen such blatant murder by proxy of a group, disabled and who is doing anything. We live this every week. I will lose my home if this goes on much longer. I need to work not be enslaved in corruption. How many more ADA critical adverse events are we to have before my wife dies? Look at all the murders you listed above. Look at the three females kicked out of the ER in Florida to die of a clot on their property. Proper labs are being denied, said all is fine, leave hospital as simole Doppler would show clots. How many more killed? And how many suicides? It truly is a impunity and war ag disabled.
my God. how horrible. it is frightening. i am so sorry your wife and you are going through this. i am on so much meds right now that i am terrified of what would happen if i was cut off. tramadol/klonopin/seroquel. i would die. literally. i hope the best for your wife and yourself.
Sadly, people who work in prison and jails are hardened to believe anyone who is in jail deserves what they get. They are used to hard core manipulators, so, they are indifferent to true suffering.
However, that being said, it would be interesting to see how many times this young woman had been given the opportunity for treatment…
That attitude is what just murder’d a mother and her baby,,it may be the reason they did,,but it should NEVER be acceptable to any one!!!!,,If I go rob a bank because I need the money,,the reason i did is not acceptable,,its breaking the law,,and last time I checked MURDER is against the law..Torturing a mother and baby is against the law,,,its sickening what these people did to this young mother and child,,they made her suffer in agonizing physical pain it triggerd her siezures,,over what,,,a medicine,,a medicine designed to help stop physical pain or siezures,,who the hell is anyone to decide how much anyone should suffer??NO-ONE,,NO-ONE HAS THAT RITE,,,THERE SICKOS,,maryw
Even worse, it’s not only the people who work in prison and jails who believe anyone in jail deserves what they get. I read a lot of comments for news articles like this one and all too often the general public simply dismiss people in prison saying, “It’s simple. Don’t break the law and this won’t happen to you.” I get that they are scared and would rather live in denial but it’s still sickening and they’re also very wrong.
People break the law on average a few times a day without even knowing it. Thousands of new regulations are placed on the books every day so it can and does happen to anyone. And it’s not like law enforcement never makes a mistake. Or that people aren’t trapped in prisons for no wrong doing except for not having enough money to fight for their rights in court.
Until people realize what happens to one happens to all inhuman treatment and horrific tragedies such as these will continue.
Most of the jails an prisons are for profit . They don’t want a dime going out the door out of their pocket. Yes most are so hardened. People are beat up raped and killed . It is all brushed under the rug. I have worked with people being released from jail an prisons. So many die just like this lady. Oh the inmates tried to get help for them. No one wanted to bother with just another criminal. Hardened people run them places and we pay them for it.
People are going to die all over this country many because they are trying to stop pain any way they can even if they may die.
This is just getting started with our people dying.they don’t care. It will happen in our family.
Sandra
These defendents act like sociopaths for a reason.
My guess at the reason, is that they are, most likely, sociopaths.
Giving political power to a sociopath is a little bit dumber, than filling a toilet with gasoline, sitting down on it, and smoking a cigarette. It’s rare that the results aren’t catastrophic.
This is sickening…..what a waste of life and for no reason.
ENOUGH!!!!! FU— MURDERES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
,I never use that word!!but enough tooo many,,,innocent humanbeings have been murderd by this prop,and Klondyn and our government,,enough!!!even babies now,,,wth is it gonna take,,,,please DO NOT LET THIS WOMEN AND BABIES DEATH BE IN VAIN,,KEEP IT IN THE MEDIA!!!!maryw