Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Public Sector Gulags
The world will never know how Eric Perez died
Ursus:
The Miami Herald
Posted on Wednesday, 07.20.11
Lockup's medical log details teen's death spiral
Though Eric Perez screamed and retched all night at the Palm Beach juvenile lockup, he was not seen by a nurse until 7:51 a.m., a log indicates. By then it was too late.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
CMARBIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Eric Perez (Photo provided)
By the time paramedics arrived at the West Palm Beach lockup to treat Eric Perez, the 18-year-old — jailed on a marijuana possession charge — showed only a "flat line" on a heart monitor.
Though Eric had been screaming and retching all night long, lockup administrators failed to call 911 until well after dawn. A detention center healthcare log provided Wednesday to The Miami Herald shows the youth was not examined by a medical professional until 7:51 a.m. Four minutes later, the log shows, lockup staff called a "code white," indicating the youth's condition had become critical.
The death of Eric Perez, who grew up in Port St. Lucie, is the most recent tragedy to rock Florida's long-troubled Department of Juvenile Justice, which has been gripped by a cycle of scandal and short-lived reform for years.
In 2003 and 2004, administrators promised they would "treat every child as if he were your own" after guards and nurses at the Miami lockup waited three days before calling an ambulance for Omar Paisley, who also was dead before paramedics could help him. The agency hired a statewide medical director, posted signs throughout the 22 detention centers authorizing guards to call 911 at the first hint of an emergency, and beefed up medical care — including providing healthcare on-site at the Miami lockup 24 hours a day.
In an interview with The Herald Tuesday, Secretary Wansley Walters suggested poor decision-making — not policies, procedures, training or money — was responsible for Eric's death.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Ronda Storms, who serves on the powerful Justice Appropriations Subcommittee and chairs the Children, Families and Elder Affairs committee, said she asked Walters to brief her on the youth's death. "The secretary told me there was no question at all that 911 should have been called," Storms said.
"There was no evidence he was acting out," said the Valrico Republican. "He was a good kid. He's doing everything he's supposed to do. If this is how they treat the good kids, how do they treat the kids who are acting out? That's a scary proposition."
According to the medical log, four guards and a nurse, none of whom are named, were in the room with Eric in his final moments, with two other guards outside. "One officer doing rescue breathing and me doing chest compressions," the nurse wrote. At 8 a.m., paramedics arrived, connected the youth to their own defibrillator and began doing chest compressions themselves, the log says.
"Their machine got a flat line," the nurse wrote. "They said [there was] nothing they could do; the police would then take over from there."
The progress notes' last item contains only one word: "deceased."
Eric, who turned 18 eight days before he died, was stopped June 29 while riding his bicycle because the bike did not have a night light, sources told The Herald. During the stop, officers found a small amount of marijuana on the teen. Because he already was on probation for a years-old robbery charge, Eric was sent to the detention center. He was five feet, eight inches tall, and weighed 120 pounds. A picture of the teen attached to the log shows a youthful-looking kid with a thick Afro and his mouth partly agape. He had a tattoo on his right arm, and was missing a tooth.
At admission, Eric told lockup staff he had smoked marijuana three hours earlier, "one hit."
On Sunday, July 10, beginning around 1:30 a.m., Eric complained he had a severe headache, and began hallucinating that an imaginary person was on top of him. He had been throwing up for hours as guards sought "guidance" from a different nurse who did not answer her phone. Records say lockup supervisors and the facility's superintendent instructed staff not to call 911.
Copyright 2011 Miami Herald Media Co.
Ursus:
Comments left for the above article, "Lockup's medical log details teen's death spiral" (by Carol Marbin Miller, 07.20.11, The Miami Herald):
southernman305 · 07/20/2011 09:53 PM
R.I.P.
God is Love.Heatman361 · 07/20/2011 11:17 PM
You just never know what will happen.sapo · 07/20/2011 11:42 PM
18 what was he doing in a juvenile detention center? You can not house an adult with children and how can we judge the first responders they are not Doctors and can only give the current and imidiate care their training allows them do do. If the subject claims symptoms of any kind monitore and call paramedics. Thats all you can legaly do, end of story.shelacked · 07/21/2011 12:31 AM in reply to sapo
They didn't call paramedics. That's what this is all about.
Read the story before you say end of story.nur_1996 · 07/21/2011 01:02 AM in reply to sapo
They can stay in system until they are 19. I am so saddened by his death. The system has failed again.Skye Lyne · 07/21/2011 08:02 AM in reply to sapo
Actually if a juvenile is on Juvenile Probation and they end up violating that probation then they can be sent to a juvenile detention center. It is only when he is arrested on a new charge that he can be sent to adult jail. Furthermore, if they saw the him throwing up then that should have been a sign that he needed medical attention.[/list]
shelacked · 07/21/2011 12:28 AM
"poor decision-making — not policies, procedures, training or money"
Really? Are those all the excuses.
A five year old would know to call 911, and it wouldn't cost a dime.
This was sadistic behavior, coupled with gross negligence. Murder 2.merrychristmas · 07/21/2011 12:55 AM in reply to shelacked
Officially your are right. They should have called 911 and a five year old would know to call 911. But the dirty little secret in city. county and state agencies is save money at all costs. The policy makers threaten and intimidate those below them not to spend any money and this is the cost. It's the old "lets hope he gets better, wait for the day shift nurse, so we don't get charged for the paramedics visit. And if the kid got transported to the hospital, they would have had to pay a guard to go with him. God forbid they pay any overtime or extra hours to get a kid medical help. This is what happens with the save money at all costs mentality for government workers and spend spend spend for special intrest projects..nur_1996 · 07/21/2011 12:59 AM in reply to merrychristmas
You are so right. Its all about money not the kids. Take it from someone who knows. Dirty agency with dirty secrets. We are failing the youth, and they are dying in their hands. RIP Ericyessy21 · 07/21/2011 09:16 AM in reply to merrychristmas
I wonder if this was their child what would have happened?[/list][/list]
nfekted · 07/21/2011 06:41 AM
What exactly did this kid die from?? There is a line to be drawn here and those nurses and staff should be held completely accountable for this tragedy. Rotten as Eric Perez may or may not have been, he didn't deserve to die this way.leronca · 07/21/2011 11:20 AM
"Records say lockup supervisors and the facility’s superintendent instructed staff not to call 911."
Why do something so dangerous and stupid as instructing staff not to call 911 when it is the right, humane, legal and commonsensical thing to do?! Even the signs posted in the lockups authorize guards to "call 911 at the first hint of an emergency"!
If the guards feared that the kid was acting out and they had no medical staff at night, the 911 call would have brought paramedics who would have determined if it was a real emergency. If the kid was faking illness, he could have been punished later, but if it was a real emergency (as it turned out to be) then the kid would have been transported to the hospital and treated.
In these situations, administrators should always err in the side of caution no matter what..proud58 · 07/21/2011 12:40 PM in reply to leronca
They will always err on the side of economics no matter what. That is the current policy. Hospital visit = $ costs. The analysis stops there.[/list]
proud58 · 07/21/2011 12:38 PM
Let's cut these budgets even more - better yet, lets privatize it all so we won't hear about it at all. That's the ticket!Lowell Kuvin · 07/21/2011 01:17 PM
Not only does this happen in the juvenile jail, it happens all the time in the adult jail as well. Many jail personnel like to play "*uck you, I'm in charge." Regardless of age, all persons who are incarcerated need reasonable access to medical treatment no matter how much paperwork is involved.ZZardozz · 07/21/2011 08:27 PM
Yet another human being is killed by the US govt.'s war on drugs.cassiuscasio · 07/22/2011 12:53 PM in reply to ZZardozz
I'm sure there are many wing-nuts who would support a "death penalty" for marijuana possession. ...the same ones that defend Rush's use of illegally begotten narcotics. The State of Florida has decriminalized and increased access to drugs...to bad it was prescription narcotics instead of marijuana.[/list]
Copyright 2011 Miami Herald Media Co.
Ursus:
With a nod to the title of this here thread, perhaps the world will get to know, after all, just how Eric Perez died...
Video news footage at the title link below, or from this page.
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
WPEC - CBS 12 News
Family of Eric Perez requests video of his final hours
July 20, 2011 11:08 PM
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The family of a teen who died in juvenile detention is requesting video of the young man's final hours.
An attorney representing the family of 17-year-old Eric Perez says under a new state statute the family is entitled to see the detention center video.
Perez died at the center after suffering head pain and vomiting for several hours. A fired guard claims he wanted to call 9-1-1 but supervisors kept him from doing so.
Wednesday the lawyer for the Perez family Richard Schuler, says there is a rule requiring two guards to accompany a juvenile to the hospital. Schuler says he suspects understaffing may explain not calling 9-1-1.
"Is probably because they didn't have two guards to sacrifice to send in the ambulance and still have sufficient coverage," said family attorney Richard Schuler.
A Department of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman said she would check to see if she could comment given the on-going investigation.
Copyright © 2011 Freedom Communications · CBS 12 News
Ursus:
Video news footage at the title link:
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
NEWS CHANNEL 5 — WPTV
Last 7 hours of teen's life revealed
Attorney releases medical log
Posted: 07/21/2011
By: Rochelle Ritchie
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - After days of waiting and guessing what could have happened to Eric Perez, the teen who died at a West Palm Beach detention center, the medical log has finally been released and light has been shed on the last seven hours of his life.
Perez's family attorney, Richard Schuler, released the teen's medical log and the termination letter for one of the fired employees.
The log describes how Perez wasn't seen for more than six hours by a medical professional.
It was 1:30 a.m. when juvenile inmate number 101838 was found sick in his cell.
In the termination letter, hand delivered to the now former supervisor Terence D. Davis, the Department of Juvenile Justice says Davis was called to module B-2.
A family attorney says at that time, Perez had become severely ill and was vomiting.
At 2:15 a.m., Davis was called back to the module and was directed by his superintendent to call nurse Diana Heras for help, but she didn't answer the phone.
Heras has worked for Corizon Health Services, which is contracted by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
They sent a statement saying "Their contract provides medical staff from 7 a.m. to one p.m. on weekends, and that nurses are not on-call during the overnight hours. Instead the local pediatric physician practice that provides physician services for the facility has a doctor on call at all times."
At 5:40 a.m., 4 hours and ten minutes after falling ill, Perez was moved to the medical confinement area.
DJJ again says Davis failed to call 911.
What happened next is documented in Perez's medical log. In it, a nurse says at 7:45 a.m. she was told by a supervisor a youth was in medical confinement and had been vomiting through the night. Six minutes later at 7:51 a.m., Perez was observed snoring.
At 7:55 a.m. he stopped breathing.
After numerous attempts to revive him, the medical log says Perez flat-lined and there was nothing else they could do.
His attorneys say he was pronounced dead at 8:09 a.m.
His cause of death is a question that's yet to be answered.
It could be weeks before an autopsy report is released.
As for the other guard fired, Flloyd Powell, he plans to sue the state for wrongful termination. Since Perez's death he has argued he was given an order not to call 911.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc.
Ursus:
From one of TCPalm.com's blogs:
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
Michael Goforth — Opinion | St. Lucie County
Death of Eric Perez
By Michael Goforth on July 22, 2011 2:08 PM
The Children's Campaign of Florida, a watchdog group on the status of young people in this state, has taken up the case of Eric Perez of Fort Pierce following his death in a juvenile detention center in Palm Beach County.
With each new report, the tragedy becomes more stunning.
Here's what The Children's Campaign said today:
When Eric Perez died in the West Palm Beach Detention Center on Sunday, July 10, it awakened painful memories of Omar Paisley. His death in a Miami-Dade Detention Center in 2003 rocked the state in its cruelty. DJJ staff didn't respond to his appendicitis attack, allowing him to writhe in his cell in excruciating pain for 3 days. By time medical help was summoned, it was too late. Omar died.
Eric's medical dilemma, not yet disclosed, was more acute and short-lived. His painful death, however, was no less gruesome. And like Omar, medical help was not summoned promptly despite obvious signs of distress.
Clearly, policies and procedures implemented by DJJ after Omar's death were not followed. But, critical questions remain unanswered.
The Children's Campaign in our role of Watchdog is speaking to many and gathering facts. More will be reported soon and questions will be raised.
Categories: Fort Pierce, Florida, Happenings, St. Lucie County, St. Lucie County government, St. Lucie County people
Tags: 911, Children's Campaign, death, Eric Perez, Fort Pierce, juvenile detention center
© 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
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