AP Exclusive: Ky. inmate starves himself to death; doctor fired, hunger strike rules rewritten
Source: Star and Tribune
A prison doctor has been fired and two other staffers are in the midst of being dismissed after an inmate at the Kentucky State Penitentiary starved himself to death, a case that has exposed lapses in medical treatment and in how hunger strikes are handled at the facility. Prison officials have asked prosecutors to investigate after The Associated Press began asking questions about the inmate's death.
James Kenneth Embry, 57 and with just three years left on a nine-year sentence for drug offenses, began to spiral out of control in the spring of 2013 after he stopped taking anti-anxiety medication. Seven months later, in December, after weeks of erratic behavior — from telling prison staff he felt anxious and paranoid to banging his head on his cell door — Embry eventually refused most of his meals. By the time of his death in January of this year, he had shed more than 30 pounds on his 6-foot frame and died weighing just 138 pounds, according to documents reviewed by the AP.
An internal investigation determined that medical personnel failed to provide him anti-anxiety medication that may have kept his suicidal thoughts at bay and didn't take steps to check on him as his condition worsened. The internal review of Embry's death also exposed broader problems involving the treatment of inmates — including a failure to regularly check inmates on medical rounds and communication lapses among medical staff.
The AP, tipped off to Embry's death, obtained scores of documents under Kentucky's Open Records Act, including a report detailing the investigation into Embry's death, an autopsy report and personnel files. Along with interviews with corrections officials and correspondence with inmates, the documents describe Embry's increasingly paranoid behavior until his death and the numerous opportunities for various prison staff to have intervened.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/256035031.html
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severe anorexia and weight loss. Sometimes the weight loss is life threatening and it does not respond to anything but treating the underlying mental health disorder. If this man had access to appropriate medical care with a provider who knew even the basics about mental illness, he would be alive today. Probably, all he needed was to resume his anti-anxiety medications. I have seen this several times in my own practice. Patients with unexplained weight loss, wasting away, all the tests are normal, start them on something for their anxiety and depression--and they start easting again and their weight goes back to normal.
It is very unfortunate that he had no family. Family could have intervened to get him the mental health care he needed and that many people in the middle of untreated mental illness are not capable of demanding for themselves.
I hope that the state of Kentucky is not allowed to bury this one the way they buried that poor man. His last few months must have been living hell. To be depressed and scared enough not to eat means that you are truly miserable.
Usually, I will hesitate to call something malpractice based on a news story. Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances. But I don't see any here.
