‘Help me.’ Diabetic didn’t get insulin and died in Jackson County jail, lawsuit says
Cindy Michelle Arnold didn’t want to die.
She didn’t even want to be arrested, especially for violating her own protection order against her ex.
She pleaded with guards and medical personnel at the Jackson County jail to give her the insulin she needed to inject six to eight times a day to treat her Type 1 Diabetes, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
But as her condition worsened, the suit says, staff mostly ignored her pleas for help.
In the early-morning hours of Sept. 10, 2018, jailers found the 38-year-old woman dead on the floor of her jail cell in the lockdown unit, where detainees with disciplinary problems are usually held.
She was naked, her body wrapped in a shower curtain and curled up under a bunk bed at the Pascagoula-based correctional facility.
Her death came two days after deputies arrested her on a misdemeanor charge of violating conditions of a protection order she had gotten to keep her former common-law husband away from her.
According to the arrest report, Arnold had called authorities to come to her Moss Point home the evening of Sept, 8, 2018, because of a domestic dispute. When authorities got there, the report said, they arrested Arnold because she had apparently invited her ex to come to her home in violation of her own protection order.
‘Their own medicine’
Arnold’s death devastated her daughter, Kayla Rush.
Rush has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jackson County, the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Mike Ezell, five jail officers, and Comprehensive Medical Associates, Inc., which at the time had the contract to provide healthcare to jail detainees.
“Kayla is her only child,” her attorney Christopher Klotz said. “She is a hardworking young woman who loved her mom a great deal and has been tremendously affected by the knowledge that her mom died an unnecessary death because she was not cared for by the people charged with providing basic medical needs.”
Rush is suing for unspecified punitive and compensatory damages for negligence, pain and suffering and failure to provide the standard level of medical care to Arnold.
“Kayla is absolutely devastated by this,” Klotz said. “She was close to her mom. Now, she has to live with the fact that her mom suffered.
“People who are in jail are even more vulnerable because they don’t have access their own medicine,” he said. “So, they are counting on the jail for medicine that could be lifesaving. When a jail fails to take responsibility, then thing like this happen.”
No criminal wrongdoing
After Arnold’s death, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was called in to do an independent investigation.
A Jackson County grand jury later reviewed evidence in the case, but determined no criminal wrongdoing occurred.
Klotz, however, said he is still waiting on autopsy results.
Ezell could not comment on the pending litigation, but said the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has cooperated fully with the investigation.
Attorneys for the other defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
CMA said in a court filing that one of its nurses attempted to do a medical evaluation on Arnold during her jail stay, but she refused to cooperate.
In the aftermath of Arnold’s death, Jackson County ended its contract with CMA and entered into a contract with VitalCore Health Strategies to handle healthcare needs for jail detainees.
Getting sick
Deputies arrested Arnold around 6:30 p.m. the evening of Sept. 8, 2018.
Three hours later, she was in a cell allegedly asking jailers about her insulin.
According to the lawsuit, she had told the medical staff and deputies during her medical intake procedure that she required daily insulin treatments, the suit says.
CMA said she wouldn’t cooperate during her medical intake.
Arnold was held in the jail’s lockdown unit, where inmates are usually housed for disciplinary reasons. Arnold was placed there due to her medical condition.
Throughout her two-day stay, the suit says, Arnold begged jailers to get her help and also pleaded with other prisoners to let staff know she was sick and needed insulin.
At one point, the suit says, Arnold shouted out from her cell to other prisoners to get her help.
But still, the suit says, she didn’t receive the insulin required to treat her diabetes.
During her time in lockdown, the suit says, Arnold eventually was able to tell another prisoners she wasn’t feel well and needed her insulin injections.
“Please, tell them to help me, help me,” Arnold allegedly cried out.
As Arnold’s condition worsened on Sept. 9, a jail nurse visited her cell on three separate occasions, the lawsuit, but nothing was done to help her.
A jailer eventually noticed Arnold didn’t seem right and told the nurse, “You need to stay here and find out what is wrong with this woman because there is obviously a problem.”
Soon after, Arnold was vomiting in her cell and drinking excessive amounts of water from the shower.
Prisoners started complaining about the smell of vomit coming from the cell, the suit says.
Around 8 p.m., a prisoner heard Arnold breathing deeply and noticed her lying naked on the floor her cell, and asked a guard to get help.
The jailer, the suit said, shined a light into Arnold’s cell, then told the prisoner, “she is still breathing, though.”
At 2:36 a.m. the next morning, jailers went into Arnold’s cell and found her dead.
Her body was still on the floor wrapped in shower curtain just as prisoners had reported seeing more than six hours earlier.
Since Arnold’s death, her only daughter has moved away because it was too painful to stay in the area, her attorney said.
“To completely ignore her pleas for help and her cellmates pleas for help for medical attention is inhumane and it’s not the appropriate level of care,” Klotz said.
