On December 8, 2021, 34-year-old Christopher Torres-Garcia died while in the custody of Webb County Jail in Laredo, Texas. A custodial death report (CDR) about his passing lists the medical cause of death as “sepsis due to infected drug injection sites.” The CDR shows that Mr. Torres-Garcia received medical treatment for the medical condition that caused his death. He had been in the jail for one week before his death.

Act Fast to Prevent Sepsis

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) addresses sepsis prevention on their website. The CDC states that sepsis is a medical emergency. Immediate medical care is needed if anyone has an infection that is either not getting better or getting worse. They advise people to “act fast” in these circumstances.

If in-person medical care is not possible, at a minimum, telehealth services should be accessed. Ask the medical expert whether the infection in question could lead to sepsis. Go to the emergency room, if recommended.

How Deadly is Sepsis?

More people die from sepsis every year than the total number of deaths for HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and prostate cancer combined.

Components of a protocol to ensure that a patient survives sepsis include:

• Identify the condition early by way of lab tests and X-rays
• Initiate rapid fluid resuscitation
• After blood cultures have been drawn, rapidly administer antibiotics
• Continue with six-hour efforts for resuscitation and provide further management of the patient in the intensive care unit (ICU).

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this continuing series.

Providing resources of help to Texas inmates in city and county jails is the purpose of this website. Insinuating misdeeds on people or institutions is never intended.

–Guest Contributor