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Health See other Health Articles Title: Inmates: Man Begged For Care Before Death Medical Records Show Man Given Tylenol NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ebodio Castillo spent his final night gasping for breath, crying in pain and begging for help but was ignored in the jail where he was serving a five-day sentence for a driver's license violation, more than two dozen fellow inmates say. The experience so rattled other inmates at the Warren County Jail that 14 took the unusual step of signing a letter to a local newspaper, and others wrote separate letters and gave interviews to The Associated Press. An autopsy concluded Castillo, 51, died of complications from bronchopneumonia the day before he was to be released. His family says he was a healthy man before he began his short sentence for driving on a suspended license, making his rapid decline that much more shocking. Sheriff Jackie Matheny said his staff did nothing wrong and that Castillo refused help. Inmates say the staff ignored an obviously sick man and state investigators never interviewed them before completing a report that remains closed to the public. "I don't believe this man was just absolutely neglected," Matheny said. "I feel like that if he would have shown signs of having pneumonia, of being very ill, we would have done something." Castillo entered jail on Thursday, June 25 and, according to a letter from fellow inmate Rosendo Ramirez, by early Saturday morning he was cold and trembling. He did not sleep all night and by Sunday Castillo told Ramirez he was going to die and wanted to see his son. Rather than take him to a doctor, jailers moved him to a cell in a different part of the jail, Ramirez wrote. "I'm writing you because I just witnessed a man die today for no reason," inmate David Galaz wrote in a letter to the editor of the McMinnville newspaper, The Southern Standard, and signed by 14 inmates. The details differ slightly, but interviews and letters that encompass the testimony of 24 inmates say Castillo was visibly ill when he was brought into their pod on June 28, the day before his death. "You could hear him saying, 'Help me, buddy. Help me,"' inmate Zacheriah Holden said in a telephone interview. "You could hear him praying, 'Please. Please.' He begged and begged." The inmates claim his pleading went on all night. They say a nurse refused to see Castillo early Monday, telling them he would be OK and was due to be released the next day. By 4 p.m., he was dead. "I can tell you this, some of the things said by the inmates are absolutely false," the sheriff said. "I certainly wouldn't permit our people to do wrong and abuse people, regardless of what race they are or whatever." Castillo was an immigrant from Mexico, his son Omar Ramirez said, and he spoke very little English. In an incident report written after Castillo's death, guard Abel Rivera, a Spanish speaker who was able to communicate with Castillo, writes the inmate refused an offer to see the nurse at about 2 a.m. on the day of his death. Dr. Todd Rice, assistant professor of medicine in the division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care at Vanderbilt University, said it is not entirely uncommon for people to get very sick from bronchopneumonia, but the illness is usually caused by a bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. "Having worked with some prisoners I know that people make stuff up and feign things," he said. "It's a hard situation. You really have to be on your toes." Still, Rice said he found it "a bit unusual" that someone could die of bronchopneumonia without anyone realizing how sick he was because, he said, "when you have this you look sick -- you look really sick." Dr. Feng Li, who performed the autopsy on Castillo, said he was killed both by a lack of oxygen and by the infection spreading through his body and causing multiple organs to fail. Jail medical records show Castillo was seen by a nurse on either Friday, June 26, or Saturday, June 27 (the dates on two different forms conflict). According to the records, he had chills and a complained of an abscessed tooth and swollen lymph nodes. He was given Tylenol and not seen by a nurse again. "He was in perfect shape," his son, Omar, said. "He always worked hard. ... He was strong. Even now I still don't understand how he died." Ramirez said his father came to Tennessee from Veracruz, Mexico, four years ago to work in a plant nursery. Jail records show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was investigating whether Castillo was in the country illegally. Ramirez said Castillo was saving money to buy a better house, a little land and some cattle back home, where he planned to return to be with his wife and the youngest of his five children, a 9-year-old boy who still asks to speak to his father on the phone. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation looked into Castillo's death but its report is not public. Inmates who witnessed the death said they were not interviewed. The local district attorney general, Lisa Zavogiannis, declined to bring any charges against jail staff, writing to the TBI, "No crime has been committed. He died of pneumonia." She did not address whether Castillo was denied medical care. Omar Ramirez and other relatives filed a lawsuit against the sheriff and jail personnel on Monday with the help of Nashville immigration attorney Elliott Ozment, who was asked by the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta to look into the matter. Although none of the inmates said they thought Castillo was discriminated against because he was Latino, his son does believe ethnicity played a role in his father's treatment. "I feel mad," Ramirez said. "I'm mad and furious with all this happening to him for just being Hispanic, for being a different color."
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#1. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
Dear God. How awful.
Well, it's very simple to me. Had he not been in the United States illegally, he wouldn't have died in one of our jails. How many Americans, who are white die in Mexican jails and prisons every day? The number would surprise you. I could give a damn if this man was neglected or not. He shouldn't have been in this country in the first place.
Better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not.
I believe the two dozen inmates stories. A hard workin' family man's pleas for help were neglectd, and he died for no reason.
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