DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – Decatur Memorial Hospital faces sanctions for how long it took to hand over information related to a wrongful death lawsuit involving a man who died in jail.
The case relates to the July 18, 2015 death of Michael A. Carter. Carter lost his life because of diabetic ketoacidosis he began dealing with while in the Macon County Jail. The lawsuit claims jail staff, including licensed practice nurse Jo Bates and DMH Physician Dr. Robert Braco, wouldn’t give Carter his prescription medication for diabetes during his five-day stay behind bars. The medication he needed was confiscated when he went to jail.
Chicago attorney and Carter estate representative Rahsaan Gordon says Carter told his fiancée by phone about “extreme” pain he was feeling as his condition became worse. The lawsuit says his mother, nurse Sheila McGee, talked to Bates by phone on July 17 and explained the emergency nature of his condition. It says Bates refused a request to hospitalize Carter and told McGee he was having “anxiety about being incarcerated."
On July 18, Carter couldn’t stand anymore and was disorientated. Gordon says Bates would not get an ambulance for Carter and called Braco, who denied a hospital transfer. He says Bates and Braco finally allowed Carter to go to the hospital, but only allowed him to go by patrol car because they didn’t want an ambulance bill. Carter died at 12:35 p.m.
The DMH document, released in March after Chicago attorney and Carter estate representative Rahsaan A. Gordon says he began making legal requests in January of 2018, is a personnel file for Bates. It says Bates lost her job because of unsatisfactory performance, then goes on to say she made inappropriate comments around other jail staffers after Carter died.
According to the document, those comments included Bates saying “this is God’s way of natural selection, weeding out the rif-raf” and that she was “going to the boat and will be drinking” if anyone needed her. It says she denied saying those things when talking with the DMH human resources staff.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan E. Hawley ordered the sanctions against DMH regarding the Bates file. DMH lead attorney Michael J. Kehart had argued he handed over Bates’ file right after he heard about it, but added that he didn’t think he needed to turn it over. In the ruling, Hawley ordered six people to be deposed a second time, including Bates, former Macon County law enforcement officials and several current and former DMH leaders. He ordered DMH to pay for travel, attorney fees and other costs regarding those depositions.
Hawley also ordered that Gordon depose Decatur Memorial Hospital CEO Tim Stone.
PDF documents featuring the complaint filed by Carter's estate, along with responses from parties involved, are attached to this story.
DMH tells WAND-TV it does not comment on active litigation.
