Family Sues PA Jail Over Heroin Withdrawal Death

[cosmic charlie]

I've been so sick in jail a few times and they could have cared less

It's pretty sickening the way drug addicts are treated

 

[implicitprodigy]

so what are the regulations/process. What steps does someone take when:

1.) They are hooked on a drug like heroin, and then go to jail, and start wd'ing?

2.) Someone is using methadone/suboxone and then goes to jail..?

3.) Someone is taking a non-narcotic drug like seroquel or celexa?

4.) Someone is taking a more mild narcotic than methadone, like Lorcet?

What is the process? Are you allowed to continue taking your medications in any circumstance... I know they have a Jailhouse nurse that comes to the door and stuff. But if you were on Lorcets and somas for a Back injury (couple years back) and your placed in jail would they continue to let you take the medicine a medical physician deemed appropriate for you BEFORE you went to jail...? Just wondering

 

[dankstersauce]

Locking up addicts and making them go cold turkey doesn't prevent a relaspe when they get out, it only makes them be more careful not to get caught next time.

I kicked heroin and alcohol cold turkey in jail and it definitely sucks.
I just wonder if this kid had a monster habit or he couldn't hack WDs or what? It's a shame either way. But the people in charge don't give a fuck, they think they're doing the addict and society a favor by making them kick cold turkey.

 

[svacheme3]

I was arrested for a cocaine charge, and was forced to cold turkey in jail with virtually zero treatment from my LEGALLY PRESCRIBED high-dose opiates. I hadn't taken a shit in weeks, finally went with massive blood loss the guard saw, then later on developed extreme stabbing pain in my lower abdomen. I begged for hours to be sent to medical, but I was told I had to vomit before he could call it in. That came soon after. I was in so much pain I could barely walk down there.

And what did they give me? 50mg of acetaminophen and an antacid. I threw those up shortly after being sent back to my cell, then the symptoms got much worse, and I was completely refused any further treatment.
Someone else in this jail DIED because they ignored his chest pain until it was too late and he had a full on heart attack, which since it happened at night medical personnel didn't respond in nearly enough time. Not w/d related, but still absurd.

It's fucking barbaric. I was *awaiting trial* on a VOP for something unrelated to my legal opiates. The drug war has completely destroyed civil rights and human decency in the name of punishing consenting adults for using drugs other than alcohol and tobacco.

 

[Hendrix Haze15]

so what are the regulations/process. What steps does someone take when:

1.) They are hooked on a drug like heroin, and then go to jail, and start wd'ing?

2.) Someone is using methadone/suboxone and then goes to jail..?

3.) Someone is taking a non-narcotic drug like seroquel or celexa?

4.) Someone is taking a more mild narcotic than methadone, like Lorcet?

What is the process? Are you allowed to continue taking your medications in any circumstance... I know they have a Jailhouse nurse that comes to the door and stuff. But if you were on Lorcets and somas for a Back injury (couple years back) and your placed in jail would they continue to let you take the medicine a medical physician deemed appropriate for you BEFORE you went to jail...? Just wondering

Well when I was locked up, I had a fairly large heroin habit, and the following morning when I woke up I was kicking real bad. The other guys in my cell saw how sick I was and told the cops I was coming off heroin and needed some meds, and I was then transferred to another jail in downtown LA which had a medical unit with nurses and everything. I remember sitting there handcuffed, answering the nurses questions on how bad my withdrawals were ( I was sitting there with trash can between my legs because I couldn't stop puking) on a scale of 1-10, and then I was given some colonodine(spelling?) and a few other meds which really didn't do much. So in LA county, if you get locked up and start withdrawing from heroin, you will be given meds, but nothing which will actually make you feel any better.

In terms of being locked up while on methadone, I just had a friend who recently went through this so I will explain what his experience was. He had been going to a methadone clinic for close to year and was recently arrested here in Orange County on some warrants he had out. It was a no bail warrant so there was no getting out either. He was on 90 mgs. when he was arrested and basically what he had to do in order to get his methadone in jail, was he first had to call his girlfriend and have her contact the clinic and tell them what had happened and how he was in jail and needed his methadone. The methadone clinic he was enrolled in then had to contact the other clinic which was closest to the county jail, and what that clinic had to do was basically bring my friend his dose every morning. However, you can't stay on a maintainance dose in jail (atleast here you can't), and my friend had to detox rather quickly. I think he told me they were dropping him 10 mgs. every other day or something like that, not exactly sure how much they were dropping him, but I know it was fast and rough. Also you only get this methadone detox if you are currently going to a legit methadone clinic, which can be verified. If you were buying methadone off the streets and were dependent, and got locked up, well then you would just get the shitty meds they give for heroin withdrawals.

Again, this is how its done in Orange/LA county. I'm sure in other places its probably a lot different.

 

[tony314]

I got the answer....

Don't go to jail....tada....

 

[pukingcells]

When my SO was arrested, he was in w/d and placed in medical from the get go and they did nothing except monitor him. Then he saw a nurse walking by and was whining that he wanted "something" and asked for suboxone, and she said to him "not unless you have a presription on the outside" which luckily he did. They called his pharmacy and bingo, gave him a subutex for 3 days. He was EXTREMELY lucky.

In my case, while in treatment, I had to be hospitalized twice due to dehydration and malnutrition. I couldn't move, puking constantly and couldnt hold anything down. This was AFTER detox. The damn insurance company wouldnt' let me stay another couple days in detox which was requested by the facility, so they had to pay for 2 ER visits which was probably more expensive.

I really believe I could've died if I didn't have medical treatment. I was sooo sick for a LOOONNGGG time coming off methadone and heroin at the same time. Glad that's over, but it didn't stop me from picking up again.

 

[nowdubnvr6]

so what are the regulations/process. What steps does someone take when:

1.) They are hooked on a drug like heroin, and then go to jail, and start wd'ing?

2.) Someone is using methadone/suboxone and then goes to jail..?

3.) Someone is taking a non-narcotic drug like seroquel or celexa?

4.) Someone is taking a more mild narcotic than methadone, like Lorcet?

What is the process? Are you allowed to continue taking your medications in any circumstance... I know they have a Jailhouse nurse that comes to the door and stuff. But if you were on Lorcets and somas for a Back injury (couple years back) and your placed in jail would they continue to let you take the medicine a medical physician deemed appropriate for you BEFORE you went to jail...? Just wondering

On any of those most jails dont do shit. Im on seroquel oxycodone and soma and didnt get any of it in jail. Even though i signed a form with my medications and basically they just held onto my meds for 5 days while i was in there.

 

[dutchie3k]

People die this way in their own homes, bombed out and withdrawing. Literally not_moving_around for way too long etc.

On the other hand, jails are wack as fuck about anything health/medical related. They never gave a damn about my prescriptions. Just threw them out. Fuckin lucky i had already kicked cold off dope a couple weeks beforehand too. Or i'd have hung i up in jail, suffering like that...

However for some reason they never have a problem tossing some dipshit 250+mg of seroquel because he says he straigh wants it...

 

[Eagleman]

In my town there was a pregnant woman who happened to be jailed on a drug charge (heroin possession). She was 6 months along in her pregnancy, and despite her being a drug addict, her fetus was healthy (this information was all included in the newspaper article).
In jail she began to withdraw badly and as many of you may know, withdrawal puts TREMENDOUS stress on the fetus, not only because the fetus is opiate dependent but also because the mother's stress is also felt by the fetus. She didn't complain of being dopesick because she knew the guards wouldn't do a goddamn thing to help her, but when she began complaining of severe abdominal pain that she hadn't felt before, she complained and the guards ignored her pleas for medical help, passing it off as withdrawal symptoms. Pretty soon she began experiencing vaginal bleeding which progressively got worse and the blood became clumpy and discolored; then the guards finally let a nurse examine her but it was too late. Her fetus was spontaneously aborting and she suffered a late-term miscarriage. That had to have been horrific because at 6 months pregnant, the fetus is a considerably large size. That poor, poor woman.
The guards viewed her as a piece of shit because she was a pregnant addict and look what happened. A lawsuit against the city / county is pending and I hope she wins.

 

[qwe]

I didn't know you can actually die from heroin withdrawals. I've gone threw it many many times and while you feel like your dieing and wish you were dead, I've always been told that it can't be fatal. You learn something new everyday.

the withdrawal itself may not be fatal, but when you throw up whatever you eat and have no appetite and squirt out all your liquids out your bum, some complications can arise

i mean they really could have at least given him some immodium. he couldn't have been a pretty sight. then again, i'm expecting a cop to know to use immodium in such a case in the first place

cops, role models for society

 

[5staR]

this is a more then comon thing in are jail systems. too many people are treated like a dirt bag addict or a crazy person because of there metal problems or substance abuse. i went to jail with abut a bundle a day habbit in the upstate area of NY, i told them my problem with heroin and was trown in an intake cell ware everyone coming and going could see me shiting and throwing up due to my habbit, this was so the C-O's could watch me they said because medical was filled and they gave me tylenol for my withdrawls, that dint help at all (obviously) after a couple days i was taken to the medical unit because of my dehydration but they dint do anyhing there either othere than watch me threw a camera at there desk fucking sukced. in this case i hope they get all there money, and feal sorry for there family and not the scumbag cops who think all addicts should just be shot.

 

[PinkStrawberries]

This is very unfortunate :'(

 

[Trey]

Is this the first death from withdrawal. Everywhere I've looked I have never seen any reports of anyone dying from w/d's. Maybe the malnutrition part, but they give you food in jail.

strange..

 

[bigbillybear]

Bros,

I agree with most of you however one problem... "But Kardos' family claims he was a heroin addict and complained repeatedly about withdrawal symptoms when he was arrested and jailed March 1."... I doubt the "family" was no where near Kardo when he was arrested and even if that was done at the arrest site did he tell the sheriff's office when he arrived to be placed into jail... I know from experience and thats how I know lmao, if you dont say you have a condition and its not documented they probably arent going to be watching you any closer then they are the other hundreds of inmates inside the facility... I feel for the family but this could be the same guy who just broke into my car the other day so he could fight those nasty withdrawls... To each his own but no sympathy for this guy himself, just his family... However do I feel enough sympathy for them to receive dollar signs, hummmm I dont think so...

BBB

 

[Eagleman]

Is this the first death from withdrawal. Everywhere I've looked I have never seen any reports of anyone dying from w/d's. Maybe the malnutrition part, but they give you food in jail.

strange..

An addict suffering severe withdrawal will be 90% likely to have no appetite whatsoever...it is a very common symptom. I was like that too when I was WDing.

 

[paranoid android]

Ive heard some horror stories of how the doctor at the pen treats people here. I was in a jail cell (i have never been to the prison where this cunt of a doc is) and there was a guy who had been in the pen for 4 days and hed gone cold turkey off 6mg's of ativan those 4 days. He fuckin well looked it too.

There has been numerous cases of attempted suicide in this one prison alone and dozens of complaints lodged against the doctor there for taking prisoners off all there meds going right from anti-depressants up to benzodiazepines and opiates. In short the head doctor there is just one sadistic cunt of a human being. I wish all the misery and agony a person can endure on him.

In short most people don't give a fuck because it's a convict. Noone gives a uck about convicts really. I certainly hope this family wins their lawsuit.

I can see how a person can die of complications due to heroin or any other strong opiate withdrawal. I damn near fainted once coming cold turkey off morphine. I didnt eat a thing for 5 days or so and was living off gatorade and water. I couldnt imagine doing that in a jail cell i really couldnt imagine the horror of that.

 

[jeah]

I just detoxed from 4mg of klonopin a day for 5years in jail. It was fucking hell to say the least. I had a seizure trying to taper off of it before too.. tapering as well. I told them to just give me a goddam antiseizure medicine then b/c I could handle the anxiety but I didn't want to die in jail. total dicks. this was in florida.

 

[SnailS1904]

all they do for you in jail is move you to a lower bunk if youre having wd's, that way if you are having a seizure you wont fall from the top bunk

ahhahahha

and i would also have to agree with what BBB had to say

Bros,

I agree with most of you however one problem... "But Kardos' family claims he was a heroin addict and complained repeatedly about withdrawal symptoms when he was arrested and jailed March 1."... I doubt the "family" was no where near Kardo when he was arrested and even if that was done at the arrest site did he tell the sheriff's office when he arrived to be placed into jail... I know from experience and thats how I know lmao, if you dont say you have a condition and its not documented they probably arent going to be watching you any closer then they are the other hundreds of inmates inside the facility... I feel for the family but this could be the same guy who just broke into my car the other day so he could fight those nasty withdrawls... To each his own but no sympathy for this guy himself, just his family... However do I feel enough sympathy for them to receive dollar signs, hummmm I dont think so...

BBB

 

[Tchort]

Is this the first death from withdrawal. Everywhere I've looked I have never seen any reports of anyone dying from w/d's. Maybe the malnutrition part, but they give you food in jail.

strange..

Death during opioid withdrawal has been happening since the introduction of opiates to humanity. Underlying medical problems become exacerbated due to the physiological strain, malnutrition and dehydration being main causes.

My guess is that these deaths are recorded as deaths from malnutrition, dehydration or whatever underlying physical condition was the immediate cause of death- even if opioid withdrawal was the main contributing factor.