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| Inmate Is Paralyzed; Family Sues |
| By Detroit Free Press |
| Published: 12/21/2001 |
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The family of an inmate, arrested for disorderly conduct in November, is planning to sue Macomb County, Mich., jail for failure to provide her medication she needed. In November, the woman, Patricia House of Clinton Township, nearly lost her life when she jumped from the second-floor balcony of the Macomb County Jail. She severed her spine, crushed three vertebrae in her neck and was paralyzed. But for several days, she was alert and able to talk, her family says. With her lungs badly bruised from the fall, she had to have a tracheotomy to help her breathe, said her mother, Mildred Miller. She also had spinal fusion surgery at Mt. Clemens General Hospital. On Nov. 22, she was transferred to Detroit Receiving. Now, she opens her eyes for brief periods, but she can't move or talk and no one knows whether she can hear or understand visitors. House's parents say they told Warren police when she was arrested for disorderly conduct on Nov. 1 that she has bipolar disorder and needed her medication, the drug Depakote. House didn't have the drug with her, her mother said. Within a few days, she was transferred to the Macomb County Jail. While it's unclear whether the jail was told of her need for the medication, she was no stranger there. In 1999, she spent 83 days there and was given antidepressants and mood-stabilizing drugs daily, according to a county court file that includes a six-page psychological review. The sheriff says a health care company is under contract to provide medical care to inmates. House's lawyers, Ben Gonek and Pammella Szydlak, say House has a 20 percent chance of survival. If she pulls through, she is not expected to walk again. Kidney failure may be imminent and she may need a pacemaker to maintain a heartbeat, her lawyers say. A lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Detroit against Macomb County, the sheriff, the City of Warren and other defendants alleges that House wasn't given Depakote to treat her bipolar disorder, a mental condition also known as manic depression. While conscious after the jump, House told her lawyers that she was never given medication at the jail and inmates teased her and called her crazy, Szydlak said. 'When she's on her medication, she's a normal person,' said Szydlak, who has known House since childhood. 'If she would have been given her medication, this would have never happened.' |
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