DENVER (AP) — The parents of a man who died alone in a Colorado jail cell after an ulcer burned a hole in his digestive tract and left him in what they said was excruciating pain for about 15 hours filed a federal lawsuit Monday, accusing the jail's nurses and sheriff's deputies of ignoring his cries for help.
The lawsuit blames them, local government officials and Southern Health Partners for failing to stop the death of Daniel Foard in 2023 by taking him to the hospital. Foard, 32, was a cook at a brewpub and user of fentanyl who was arrested for failing to appear in court. After being segregated and monitored for withdrawal from the synthetic opioid, he began vomiting and complained of stomach pain after being put in a regular jail cell, it said.
The lawsuit alleges Southern Health Partners — the Tennessee-based company they contracted with to provide health care at the La Plata County jail — has tried to maximize its profits at the jail by only having one nurse on duty at a time, leaving it to medically untrained deputies to monitor sick inmates. The company holds hundreds of contracts at jails around the country, and the lawsuit alleges that it has been involved in lawsuits related to the deaths of at least five other jail inmates nationally.
The company's lawyer, Shira Crittendon, said she had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment on it.
The sheriff's office referred questions about the lawsuit to a county spokesperson. In a statement, the county said it had not analyzed the allegations in the lawsuit and does not comment publicly on active litigation.
Autopsy found Foard died because of an ulcer
Foard was found dead in the jail on Aug. 17, 2023, six days after he was arrested.
An autopsy found Foard died as a result of a hole created by an ulcer in his small intestine, which caused inflammation of the tissue lining his abdomen. Such ulcers can let food and digestive juices leak out of the body's digestive tract.
Fentanyl was found in Foard's blood but the autopsy report did not name that as a cause of his death. Dr. Michael Arnall ruled Foard's death was due to natural causes.
On Aug. 15, 2023, even though Foard had collapsed several times and had trouble standing, he was moved out of an area where he could be more easily observed for problems with his withdrawal and put into a regular jail cell, staggering as we went, the lawsuit said. The day nurse ignored a deputy's concern that he was very unstable, according to the lawsuit brought by lawyers Dan Weiss, Anna Holland Edwards, John Holland and Erica Grossman.
After a deputy delivering breakfast on Aug. 16, 2023 saw that Foard repeatedly fell while trying to get his tray, the jail's day nurse came to check on him, it said. She recorded that Foard reported he had sharp, shooting pain that was a "10" on a scale of one to 10, but she did not call for a doctor or send him to the hospital, it said.
The nurse moved Foard to an empty cell where he could be monitored but didn't tell deputies what he was being monitored for and didn't order any follow up care or check on him, it said. He vomited all day and was moved to another cell and then a third because they had all become so messy with vomit, it said. Surveillance video showed him crawling to the final cell, where it said he continuously called out for help and yelled that he needed to go to a hospital, saying he was vomiting blood. The lawsuit claims that no one responded to his pleas but one deputy could be heard on surveillance video telling him to "try to hit that drain" with his vomit to keep the cell from becoming dirty.
Another nurse, working the evening shift, only walked by his cell and glanced inside, but did not assess him or provide care as he was pleading for help, the lawsuit said. When she did enter his cell around 10 p.m., Foard was dead, it said. She told state investigators that vomiting was normal for people withdrawing from fentanyl.
State authorities investigated Foard's death
The day shift nurse later told a state investigator that it was not unusual that Foard would not have had his vital signs checked for 12 hours because of the number of inmates the jail's nurses need to provide care, according to a report from an investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations. She also said she didn't think there was anything different she could have done based on Foard's symptoms.
The bureau's findings were forwarded to the 6th District Attorney's Office, which would decide whether any criminal charges were warranted in connection with Foard's death. It's not known whether the office decided to pursue any charges. A telephone message and email sent to District Attorney Sean Murray were not immediately returned.
In a statement, Jim Foard and Susan Gizinski said they want everyone to know about their son's ordeal both to hold those they say are responsible for his death accountable and to change how inmates are treated at the jail.
"Just basic training in having compassion for others would be a great start. But adding more staff is critical too," they said.
