By C1 Staff
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The failure of a dialysis technician to show up two days in a row led to the death of an inmate who was just two weeks shy of being released on parole.
Newser reports that Ramon C. Estrada, 62, died on Sunday of “apparent cardiac arrest due to renal failure,” according to the Utah Department of Corrections.
Estrada was scheduled to have dialysis treatment on Friday, but no one showed up that day or the next.
He died while prison staff were preparing to take him to a hospital Sunday night.
Six other inmates who were also waiting for treatment were hospitalized.
A spokeswoman for the University of Utah Hospital, who provides the technicians, said there appeared to be a miscommunication and that there will be a “thorough review of the circumstances that led to this unacceptable mistake.”
The clinical services bureau director for the DOC has been suspended pending an investigation into Estrada’s death.
Estrada was serving time for a 2005 rape conviction and was scheduled to be released on April 21.