Woods

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Three times last year Madison County jailers watched small-time criminals die before their eyes, according to a series of three lawsuits filed in federal court.

Each argues that Madison County withholds the most basic medical care in order to save money, banking on the insurance of the medical contractor to cover any resulting lawsuits.

The lawsuits are filled with maladies long ago conquered by modern medicine. Death by gangrene, from broken bones, from constipation.

Deundrez Woods, a 19-year-old from Huntsville, was arrested for shoplifting Star Wars DVDs at Wal-Mart in June of 2013 and then for passing a phony $100 bill in July. He was sent to jail, the suit asserts, where a wound in his foot became infected and he died.

At first, he behaved normally. The suit states as gangrene took hold, he suffered a "severe and sudden change in mental functioning," began hallucinating and could no longer communicate.

"Woods' mental status change was due to that infection, and he ultimately died from a blood clot that originated in his gangrenous foot," reads the complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.

Instead of receiving treatment, the suit states, Woods was placed in a "medical observation cell" on Aug. 6, 2013. He had no access to water after Aug. 12. There is no record of him eating after Aug. 14. No nurses visited him after Aug. 14.

The suit contends that as his rotting foot began to stink, guards dragged him from the cell on Aug. 17, sprayed him down with water and placed him in a new cell.

"Still, no correction officer or ACH nurse did anything to even check Woods, let alone help him," reads the complaint. The suit contends that jail records show no one took his temperature, checked his blood sugar or assessed his condition. "The gangrenous wound on top of his right foot was clearly visible had anyone bothered to look."

"Woods went from normal, to aggressive and disruptive, to barely responsive, to all but dead as correction and medical staff watched."

Tanyatta Woods, the mother of Deundrez, this week filed the federal suit against Madison County, Sheriff Blake Dorning, jailers, physicians, nurses and the medical contractor, Advanced Correctional Healthcare. She claims all were deliberately indifferent to the well-being of her son, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Jeff Rich, attorney for Madison County, said the county does not comment on pending litigation. Rich said the three lawsuits are "being vigorously defended."

Woods' lawsuit asserts that Dorning, jail administrator Steve Morrison, Dr. Arthur Williams, the director of medical care at the jail, and Dr. Norman Johnson, who is the CEO of Advanced Correctional Healthcare, are "part of an explicit or implicit agreement or plan to delay or deny necessary medical care to avoid having to pay for medical care."

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http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/gangrene_and_broken_bones_kill.html