Attorney: Marion County jailers ignored woman's medical requests before she nearly died

The Marion County Justice Center also houses the county jail.
The Marion County Justice Center also houses the county jail.

A Tennessee woman nearly died in jail because correctional officers ignored six pleas for medical attention over a month-long span, according to a $1 million lawsuit filed in Marion County Circuit Court earlier this week.

Luwin Lewis started experiencing severe stomach pain and rectal bleeding shortly after she reported to the Marion County Jail on Dec. 9, 2015, the lawsuit says. She was supposed to spend 60 days there for a driving under the influence conviction.

Lewis, who is from Franklin County, Tenn., tried to get help, filling out five or six medical treatment forms Marion County provides inmates, the lawsuit says. She delivered them to her correctional officers, "John Doe" and "Jason."

But when help never came and the pain got worse, Lewis asked the correctional officers directly for medical attention, the lawsuit says. Their response: "The only way Lewis could ask for medical treatment was by the forms."

And those were no longer available, the lawsuit says.

Lewis' lawyer in her DUI case ultimately convinced Marion County to transport her to Parkridge Hospital on Jan. 7, 2016, the lawsuit says. Three days later, Lewis cut a deal with the state saying she could leave jail if she entered an alcohol treatment program at Wildwood Lifestyle Center, the lawsuit says.

Her symptoms didn't stop at Wildwood. But there she saw a medical doctor, who had Lewis transported to Harton Hospital in Tullahoma, Tenn., for emergency surgery on a perforated colon, the lawsuit says. Admitted through Christmas, she spent 16 days in the intensive care unit to recover.

A lot of this could have been prevented if Marion County and the correctional officers took action and found proper medical care for Lewis, her attorney in the matter, Robin Flores, wrote in the lawsuit. They are listed as the defendants in the suit, which requests $500,000 in punitive damages and another $500,000 in compensatory damages.

As Flores put it: "[Lewis] needlessly endured severe deliberating pain, [was] exposed to risk of loss of life, and suffer[ed] serious bodily injury that required emergency surgery and a lengthy stay in the Intensive Care Unit, and caused [her] to suffer mental anguish and humiliation."

A Circuit Court clerk said the county government and officers had not been served yet. An assistant in the county mayor's office said she will forward the lawsuit to the county's insurance company once she receives it. The insurance company will then assign an attorney, she said.

Flores could not be reached for comment Friday. But the topic of medical treatment in county jails has cropped up in Hamilton County lately.

In August, 26-year-old Madison Deal died while in custody at Silverdale Correctional Facility on a probation violation conviction. A preliminary report from the Hamilton County Medical Examiner's office said Deal died from pneumonia she contracted after she inhaled vomit into her lungs while in heroin withdrawal. She survived the pneumonia for at least two days before dying on Aug. 18, according to the autopsy.

Attorneys for her family, however, claim that Silverdale officials failed to provide adequate medical care for Deal, who repeatedly complained about vomiting, weakness, chest pain, dehydration and trouble breathing in phone calls to her mother just days before she died.

Silverdale personnel gave Deal shots of an anti-nausea drug in the days before she died, and that drug was found in her system during her autopsy, the medical report shows. She had no traces of alcohol or other drugs in her body.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.

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