By Kiera Hay
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The family of a young mother who died last year while in custody at the Santa Fe County jail has settled with county government for a half-million dollars.
Eusemia Rodriguez, 33, died the same day she posted a $3,000 bond and after her family said she was “throwing up blood” and didn’t receive the medical attention she needed.
Rodriguez was booked into the jail about 2 a.m. on July 3, 2012, on two counts of battery on a household member. She was due to be released that night, but a correctional officer found her unresponsive in her cell about 9:17 p.m.
“Based on my review of the documents provided, my education and 28 years experience in the correctional health setting, it is my opinion that the care provided to Ms. Rodriguez while in the custody of the Santa Fe Detention Facility falls short of the established standard of care expected in an adult correctional facility in the State of New Mexico and was deliberately indifferent to her serious medical need,” registered nurse Kathryn J. Wild wrote in a report on the case. Wild was hired to review the death by attorneys working for Rodriguez’s family.
An autopsy by the state Office of the Medical Investigator failed to find conclusive evidence of what killed Rodriguez, although a statement by an expert hired by Rodriguez’s family said that OMI listed the death “as natural, and due to Chronic Alcoholism.”
Santa Fe County officials, including Santa Fe County Attorney Steve Ross, did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement. The Journal was provided with a settlement release agreement in response to a public records request.
Attorney Doug Perrin, who represented the family in the case, said a lawsuit was never filed. Instead, county officials indicated they wanted to mediate the case. A release and indemnification agreement was signed in June.
The agreement states that Rodriguez’s family will be paid by the county’s insurers, OneBeacon Insurance Company and Evanston Insurance Company. It wasn’t immediately clear if the county has a deductible.
Perrin provided the Journal with statements from Wild and two other medical experts used to bolster the family’s case.
“One thing we always hope is that this settlement changes the way we do things so we don’t have another Eusemia Rodriguez,” Perrin said.
A letter from forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek said that, based on her review of the autopsy report and other documents, Rodriguez’s death was due to complications of alcohol and opiate withdrawal “and a direct consequence of lack of appropriate preventative care at the Santa Fe County Jail.”
Wild wrote that when Rodriguez was booked into the jail, she told screeners she didn’t have any medical problems but that she used hard liquor and heroin daily and got sick when she abstained. Rodriguez was cleared for booking along with orders that she be given an opiate “kick kit” to help with withdrawal symptoms. But there was no documentation showing that Rodriguez was ever given the medication, according to Wild.
Records indicate that a couple hours after Rodriguez was booked an observation log was initiated indicating that Rodriguez was to be checked every 15 minutes over the next 24 hours, Wild said. Instead, the log showed checks at 7 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 8:51 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
At 9:17 p.m. a “code blue” was activated and nursing staff arrived to find Rodriguez lying unresponsive. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 9:50.
Wild’s report noted that an inmate reported that Rodriguez had been complaining of feeling sick and was throwing up blood, and that a corrections officer checked on the her and confirmed the situation.
Substance abuse history
Medical records, including jail documents, clearly showed that Rodriguez had an extensive history of drug and alcohol abuse that often led to severe withdrawal symptoms during times of abstinence, Wild wrote.
According to Wild’s report, Rodriguez’s substance abuse history and withdrawal symptoms had been documented and treated during four prior bookings between 2009 and 2012.
During a jail stay in 2010, Rodriguez’s withdrawal symptoms were left untreated and she eventually had to be taken to the hospital emergency room. “Nothing was done to manage her withdrawal until she was so compromised she needed admission to an acute care hospital,” Wild wrote.
In 2011, Rodriguez appeared to be having hallucinations but was put into the jail’s general population and left untreated
“On July 3, 2012, health care personnel were again alerted by the patient that she was a daily user of heroin and hard liquor, and that when she stopped drinking alcohol and using drugs, she suffered from nausea, vomiting and flu-like symptoms. In light of this truthful admission and her significant prior history, no monitoring was done and no medications were administered for this patient. Instead she was accepted for booking and left unmonitored and untreated until she was found unresponsive in her cell,” Wild wrote.
“Ms. Rodriguez was locked in a cell for almost nineteen (19) hours, no regular monitoring was done and no prescribed medications were administered. Even other inmates reported they could identify the distress she was in and the severity of her conditions, yet no health care professional or correctional officer bothered to offer care or treatment,” Wild wrote.
Wild also said the mandatory health screening Santa Fe County is required to provide for all inmates “is haphazard at best.”
William Noel, an Idaho-based osteopathic doctor who said he has four decades of medical experience, said he believes Rodriguez’s prolonged vomiting caused an electrolyte imbalance which resulted in cardiac arrest.
Release order
Perrin, the family’s attorney, said another issue was that Rodriguez was arraigned around 1:30 p.m. and a judge ordered that she be released. A fax was sent to the jail around 4 or 4:30 p.m. saying Rodriguez should be released but it didn’t happen, Perrin said.
If Rodriguez had been released earlier, provided with medical help or taken to the hospital, she would still be alive, Perrin said.
The settlement release and indemnification agreement provided by the county shows Sophia Franco-Rodriguez, described as the “personal representative” of Rodriguez’s estate, as receiving $460,000, while Rodriguez’s longtime partner Clyde Ortega and her mother Victoria Rodriguez were each to get $20,000.
Rodriguez’s family has agreed to set up a trust for her three children, Perrin said.
“We certainly hope and expect that the money is going to help make a better future for these kids,” he said.
According to a Santa Fe police report, Rodriguez’s arrest leading to the July 3 booking was for two charges of battery on a household member. The report said Rodriguez had been arguing with her boyfriend about her own alcohol and drug use before getting arrested.
Rodriguez had been to the Santa Fe jail nine times since 1998, for charges including shoplifting and failure to pay fines, according to the inmate database.