N.C. Inmate Dies After Collapse

Article Tools Print This Page | Comments(0) | Suggest a Story

By Charlotte Observer

Published: 08/04/2003

A 45-year-old man collapsed recently at the Cleveland County Detention Center and later became the second inmate to die since a private company took over health care there.
Roger Lee Banks was taken to Cleveland Regional Medical Center July 16 when he began bleeding from the rectal area and passed out, according to jail officials. He died at the hospital July 20 of complications from an ulcer.
A judge had ordered Banks' release from jail July 17, while he was still at the hospital.
Southern Health Partners of Chattanooga, Tenn., has provided health services to inmates at the jail since July 2002. The center has a nurse on duty 12 hours every day, said a nurse with the company who refused to identify herself. A doctor visits once a week to review inmates' charts and decide whether to see them based on their complaints, she said.
Last summer, a 17-year-old inmate died from an abdominal infection while in custody at the jail. Teyreze Odoms had repeatedly requested medical attention in the days leading up to his Aug. 25 death, family members have said.
His family has questioned the amount and quality of medical attention he received at the jail. He was not taken to a hospital.
Former Cleveland County Sheriff Dan Crawford said in previous interviews that Odoms was seen repeatedly by medical personnel at the jail.
Odoms had been charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. He was in jail on $100,000 bond.
Banks was serving two 75-day sentences for parole violation and assault on a female. He began his sentence April 21.
Banks received medical attention every time he asked for it, said Chief Deputy Danny Gordon with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office. He did not elaborate on how many times Banks requested a nurse or doctor, citing privacy laws, but said that overall, medical service to inmates is timely.
'It's within that day or the next day,' he said. 'We don't wait two or three days.'
Capt. Phyllis Sims, detention center administrator, said Banks had seen a nurse the day before he lost consciousness, and that the nurse checked on him again July 16.
Medical personnel would not release further information about Banks' case, citing privacy laws.
Banks' death was not reported to county or state officials, Sims said, because it happened at the hospital and he was no longer an inmate.

Comments:

No comments have been posted for this article.

Login to let us know what you think

MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search