Denial of medical care is an awful thing when you are not free to go elsewhere for help. Inmates from many county jails know about this. It could be that many of the complaints against medical care that the Texas Commission on Jail Standards receives every year pertain to denial of care.

The story about a man who died in a county outside Texas refers to many occurrences when he asked or, eventually, begged for medical attention. His story follows and is like many others.

A Man Dies in Jail After Allegedly Being Denied Medical Care for Diabetes

Since names aren’t provided in this story, we will refer to the man this story is about as Steve. He was arrested and jailed at age 30 and collapsed and died when he returned from his hearing. Steve was due to be released on April 11 of that year—he was booked into the jail in the previous month.

What happened between his entry into the jail and his collapse suggests that he was denied medical care. These are verifiable facts that have emerged:

• While he was in jail for those two weeks, beginning on the first day, Steve told the medical staff and the jail employees that he needed medical attention because his blood sugar levels were too high.
• The medical staff seemed to make a medically insufficient response to his complaints. The healthcare company providing services to inmates has an internal policy about diabetic patients that the medical staff failed to uphold.

Learn more in this continuing series.

Helping Texas jail detainees and their families with resources is one of the purposes of this website. There is no intention of suggesting that people or organizations have been involved in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor