'I don't have the funds': a diabetic prisoner pleaded for insulin supplies before his death

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/15/prison-healthcare-washington-diabetes-death-clifford-farrar

Farrar, a 51-year-old with type 1 diabetes, had been insulin dependent since age 15. On the day he died, his medical records show, his blood sugar was dangerously low. When staff gave him glucagon to raise his levels, the records say, his blood sugar shot up, at which point he had a seizure and heart attack and died. The coroner said Farrar’s cause of death was “natural”, due to heart disease and diabetes.

But Farrar’s family believes the prison neglected his health throughout his detention, including by denying him access to life-saving supplies. A state committee found that staff responding to his collapse lacked proper training and that the medical devices they used had malfunctioned.

Farrar’s death, advocates argue, was a tragic but predictable consequence of the inadequate medical care within the Washington department of corrections (DOC), which has experienced repeated public health crises and scandals in recent years.

Even in a state considered one of the most progressive in the US, where the Democratic governor has pledged to make prisons “safer and more humane”, claims of systemic medical neglect have persisted, advocates point out, and in the last year, problems have escalated.

[Ziggysmom]

1. That is so disgusting. These are human beings. I don't give a rats ass what their crime was,

they deserve basic necessities and medicines to survive.

[jimfields33]

2. I don't understand why he says he doesn't have funds. He shouldn't have to have funds.

Washington needs to get its act together now! Make sure every prisoner has adequate medicines and medical care!

[catbyte]

3. It's criminal that insulin prices have gone up so much. Back in the early 90s, there

was a glitch with our insurance one month and we had to pay out-of-pocket for my husband's insulin. I remember it being around $18/bottle. Now it's creeping up to $300. Inexcusable.

[GoodRaisin]

5. Yeah, I remember that too when

my son was first diagnosed as type 1 at age 6. Now we are having to help him pay for it. And it really gets expensive when we have to pay for his insulin pump supplies. And yet every Republican voted against Biden’s affordable insulin bill and millions of voters voted for them. They don’t care!

[catbyte]

6. No kidding. It appears that being empathy-free is a requirement for today's GQP.

"Helping people is bad until it happens to me." I just can't wrap my head around it, but that's why I'm a Democrat.

[GoodRaisin]

7. Exactly. They don't care until it happens to them.

We live in the most selfish country in the world. It disgusts me.

[area51]

9. I fear too many people don't care regarding prices of any drugs

until they get sick; it's one of the reasons, along with outright congressional bribery, that the US will likely never get universal healthcare.

[Ziggysmom]

8. I hear ya! One of my husbands COPD inhalers is $167 with insurance.

The United States is still the only country in the developed world without a system of universal healthcare. Millions of Americans struggle to pay medical bills and face the choice of either hunger, homelessness or going without the medical care and drugs they need. Instead of the nut jobs fighting and claiming elections were stolen, wouldn't it be great if they could actually work to help us get some universal healthcare plan? Focus on something good for everyone?

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R