Family sues Kalamazoo County for inmate death heroin withdrawl

Selfmeditaker

Selfmeditaker

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http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...awal/-/1719418/16154748/-/ydgf8p/-/index.html


KALAMAZOO, Mich. -
The family of a Kalamazoo County Jail inmate who died while she was going through heroin withdrawal has sued the jail and three nurses, saying they failed to give her proper health care.

The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. district court over the Nov. 8, 2011, death of Andrea Armstead.

Geoffrey Fieger's law firm represents the family.

The family's complaint says Armstead was arrested on outstanding warrants on Oct. 30th.

It says she told officers that she was withdrawing from heroin.

The suit says Armstead began shaking and convulsing, eventually collapsing and losing consciousness.
 
Pretty sure alcohol is the only drug capable of causing death as a result of withdrawals.


I really hope this suit gets shot down. The family saw an opportunity to milk some money out of their daughters unique medical condition and they jumped at it. What a bunch of sick, self-centered human beings.
 
Voxide, you are mistaken.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal if abrupt and unchecked without taper can, and has lead to death. This often occurs through precipitated convulsions or catatonia upon drug withdrawal. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2300914

Opiate/Opoid withdrawal... An editorial in pubmed (A death following ultra-rapid opiate detoxification: the General Medical Council adjudicates on a commercialized detoxification © 2002 Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs Addiction, 97, 475–477) states that a death has been confirmed after very abrupt opiate withdrawal.

Edited to add that actually- her family have a reasonable point to make here. She should have been better cared for, arrest her, by all means (despite it being an unjust law allowing them to do so, assuming she was arrested for possession), but don't then let her die once she's admitted to having a dependance on anything. Medical care is such that incidents like this simply should not occur.
 
Salvinorin_A said:
Voxide, you are mistaken.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal if abrupt and unchecked without taper can, and has lead to death. This often occurs through precipitated convulsions or catatonia upon drug withdrawal. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2300914

Opiate/Opoid withdrawal... An editorial in pubmed (A death following ultra-rapid opiate detoxification: the General Medical Council adjudicates on a commercialized detoxification © 2002 Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs Addiction, 97, 475–477) states that a death has been confirmed after very abrupt opiate withdrawal.

Edited to add that actually- her family have a reasonable point to make here. She should have been better cared for, arrest her, by all means (despite it being an unjust law allowing them to do so, assuming she was arrested for possession), but don't then let her die once she's admitted to having a dependance on anything. Medical care is such that incidents like this simply should not occur.
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My mistake. I knew there was something else but wasn't quite sure.
 
more info here:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo...tte_news+(Kalamazoo+Gazette+News+-+MLive.com)

They're only suing for $75K.

The seizure makes me think of benzo withdrawal. Lots of people nowadays are simultaneously addicted to dope and benzos, so getting arrested with no ability to make bail is a serious issue.

Does anybody know how it feels to simultaneously kick heroin and benzos, cold turkey? I've only ever had mild benzo habits when I detoxed from heroin or methanol.
 
Opiate withdrawal can kill you (it's rare, yes) depending on your predicament. If you're using a very large amount/very high tolerance; cardiovascular health may play a role as BP and HR increase significantly. Conditions/chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hepatitis, malnutrition, etc. may also contribute. I know of someone from my clinic who died while in withdrawal, except it was methadone (a very high dose). I'm not sure if the fact that methadone causes QT prolongation had anything to do with it. I do believe his obesity was a factor, but I'll never know for certain.
 
this is disgusting. She told the police she was in heroin withdrawal and they did NOTHING. I be a little biased due to this being the town I grew up in but for fucks sake, when someone arrested on a (drug related charge, this isn't "confirmed yet but people talk) and they tell you their situation and Kzoo County does what? Throw her in a cell to...Die. Fucking disgusting. As said above, you can die from heroin withdrawal, and that chance rises if one is addicted to benzos etc. Also, with withdrawal we all know comes severe dehydration and loss of all(most) bodily fluids. So all of these could have contributed to her death but in the end, its on County because she told them she was in WDs and they said fuck you you junkie. So sad.... and the readers comments of this article...my god. I wonder if they would be singing a different tune if the title read" Inmate dies from WD from RX'd opioid medication.. Yea right
 
Selfmeditaker said:
and the readers comments of this article...my god. I wonder if they would be singing a different tune if the title read" Inmate dies from WD from RX'd opioid medication.. Yea right
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Nope, I'd still have the same opinion. Sorry to disappoint.
 
To be fair, most people who are heroin addicts aren't going to up and die if you take their access to dope away. They may be outright miserable but if monitored for dehydration etc they shouldn't outright die.

If this is a case of her aspirating & dying face up on the floor of her cell while the guards point and laugh, there's a case there. If it's some spontaneous angel-of-death shit caused by her just collapsing and dying I think there's nothing anyone could have done in that siutuation.

What would a better course of action be? Give her some horse on the taxpayer's dime to hold her down? Require every prison and jail to carry methadone and give it out to everyone claiming to withdraw, or have a huge habit?
 
Voxide said:
Nope, I'd still have the same opinion. Sorry to disappoint.
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I've already read your previous comments and will ignore you because you obviously have no experience with how heroin withdrawal can be potentially deadly if not treated properly. Regardless, this death could have been prevented easily.

and this sentence, " The family saw an opportunity to milk some money out of their daughters unique medical condition and they jumped at it. What a bunch of sick, self-centered human beings." Is particularly disturbing. Are you a Dr.? Your claiming her "unique medical condition" is to blame??? Where does the article state that she had any sort of medical condition other than Heroin WDs?? It doesn't say that. How dare you pass judgement on anyone, let alone the parents that just lost a child that was in the CARE of the State. I feel sorry for people like you...
 
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What would a better course of action be? Give her some horse on the taxpayer's dime to hold her down? Require every prison and jail to carry methadone and give it out to everyone claiming to withdraw, or have a huge habit?
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Yes?

Forcing addicts to undergo withdrawal is cruel an inhumane, a barbaric mistreatment which could easily be prevented by providing them with a sufficient dose of methadone to maintain them while they're locked up, slowly tapering them off it if they're in for an extended stay?
 
^ I agree with Crankinit here.
If she was arrested for possession (the article doesn't say) it is really a travesty, and I see it as potentially a Kafkaesque situation. She was minding her own business, using drugs - as all humans should have the freedom to do - when the iron hand of the law swooped down and made it so that she was unable to continue. Her body was not able to handle the cold turkey, and she died. Where is personal liberty? Why did the cops have the right to arrest her for drug possession, and then to ignore her acute medical issues?
Then again, if she was arrested for child abuse, or something similar, I would care a lot less about what happened to her. Still not right to ignore her medical issues, though.
 
Here's the full text of the lawsuit.

I think the state is fucked here. Chrome's shitty PDF reader won't let me copy text, so to summarize: no medical evaluation or nursing assessment was done, according to the suit. Any court will side with the plaintiff.

I'd understand it if the jail had a policy of not medicating heroin withdrawal with narcotics, but to not do a medical evaluation is negligence.

As one of the comments says:

medical and ethical law trump any weight given to cause of need.
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23536 said:
Here's the full text of the lawsuit.

I think the state is fucked here. Chrome's shitty PDF reader won't let me copy text, so to summarize: no medical evaluation or nursing assessment was done, according to the suit. Any court will side with the plaintiff.

I'd understand it if the jail had a policy of not medicating heroin withdrawal with narcotics, but to not do a medical evaluation is negligence.

As one of the comments says:
Click to expand...

if there was no assessment then yea they are fucked. im not sure how it is in other states/cities but i know here in memphis if you go to the county jail and tell them you are an addict and will be going into withdrawls they have to take check ups on you at certain times and they will give you clonodine too.
 
Selfmeditaker said:
Regardless, this death could have been prevented easily.
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Of course. She could have not used heroin in the first place. Crazy idea right? 8(


Her heroin habit isn't the jails problem. Tough luck. Most people won't die from opiate withdrawals.
 
f33lg00d said:
With that type of logic are we to let people oding on drugs die too?
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Not necessarily. Death from opiate withdrawal isn't normal. It's a particular situation because most people know that opiate withdrawal by itself won't kill you. With an OD, nobody is really sure what's liable to happen. If she OD'd and the jail refused to help then it would be a different story; even though the drugs would probably be found in the jail.
 
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