A 37-year-old Mexican immigrant passed away in ICE custody after officials waited more than 7 hours to transfer him to a hospital.
According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, the man died from bleeding in his brain.
Public health expert Marc Stern said: “In the absence of ICE providing an explanation, a seven-hour delay in responding to this patient does not seem consistent with adequate care.
“This may have been a preventable death.”
BuzzFeed News managed to uncover details that provide a glimpse of the inner workings of the detention centers contracted by ICE during the time when the agency is evaluated by Democrats for its system expansion.
The Mexican immigrant, Roberto Rodriguez-Espinoza, passed away on September 10 at a local hospital where medics issued a preliminary cause of death as a subdural hematoma.
When officials reported the death to media and Congressional officials, they noted that the immigrant had alcohol abuse and explained: “On Sept.point 387 |
7, facility staff observed Rodriguez-Espinoza acting confused and the facility’s physician ordered Rodriguez-Espinoza transported to the Northwestern Medicine Woodstock Hospital emergency room in Woodstock, Illinois, for further evaluation due to his confusion and history of alcohol consumption.point 262 |
”point 3 | 1
However, an internal ICE detainee notification sent after his death shows details from September 7, including the timeline of the man’s transfer to the hospital.
According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, officials waited over 7 hours to take Rodriguez-Espinoza to the hospital after he first exhibited symptoms.
At around 3:30 pm that day, Rodriguez-Espinoza started acting ‘confused and unfamiliar with his surroundings,’ the report stated. It added: “Medical staff indicated that Rodriguez-Espinoza could be detoxing and commenced an alcohol detoxing treatment per the physician’s order.”
It wasn’t until almost 11 pm that a doctor ordered him taken to a hospital because of ‘his altered mental status as a result of reported history of alcohol abuse.’
The local hospital transferred Rodriguez-Espinoza to another medical center where he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage and passed away.
Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for the New York City jail system, said: “He should have been immediately sent to the hospital. This is a horrible breach of standards of care.”
An agency spokesperson said in response to a series of questions from BuzzFeed News: “Fatalities in ICE custody, statistically, are exceedingly rare and occur at a small fraction of the rate of the US detained population as a whole.”
What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments section and SHARE this with your friends and family!
Replaced!