Deliberate Indifference
MLive reported that a jury compensated a victim’s family $6.4 million. The victim died in 2018 after being found unresponsive in the Kent County Jail. The family of Wade Jones complain he was not properly treated for alcohol withdrawal and nursing staff failed to treat.
The judgment is against Corizon Health, which has since become YesCare.
Wade Jones was serving a five-day jail sentence starting April 24, 2018 on a fraud charge. Jones was a “functional alcoholic” and warned staff that he was having alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The lawsuit claimed workers in the jail witnessed Jones behaving erratically. Hallucinating. Speaking incoherently. The staff ignored his change of condition. He went untreated. He died the next day.
Jones’ condition at the jail easily could have been managed with diazepam, marketed as valium. The drug counteracts alcohol withdrawal symptoms. On a verdict form, the jury found caregivers acted with “deliberate indifference to a risk of serious harm.”
The jury awarded $3 million for Wade Jones’ pain and suffering, $3.4 million for loss of society and companionship for his heirs.