This Student Was Left to Die in a Jail Cell After Cops Denied Him Medicine, Ignored His Pleas

2015/11/06
The Canyon County in Idaho is facing a federal wrongful death lawsuit after the death of an inmate who spent at least three weeks begging for medical assistance.

Forty-six-year-old Alford Young pleaded with deputy jailers and medical staff at the jail for medical assistance only to be ignored.

The staff paid no attention to his appeals until one day when he was found lying out cold in a holding cell.

Young was a Masters student and worked in the extended studies department at the Boise State University.

In March he developed a severe respiratory infection that led to breathing difficulties, sickness, headaches, bloody vomit amongst a host of other serious symptoms.

He pleaded the jail employees for medical assistance, but he was ignored.

On the morning of April 3, other inmates informed deputy jailers that Young was experiencing chest pain and considerable difficulty in breathing.

The jail nurse checked on him and put him in a holding cell for further evaluation.

Young indicated that on a scale of 1 to 10 he was experiencing maximum pain; despite this he was sent back to his housing unit after an employee diagnosed him as “not in acute distress”.

His condition deteriorated over the course of the day and he started experiencing intense chest pain and was once again was brought to the medical exam room, this time in a wheelchair.

Once more he was placed on the holding cell as the nurse determined his vitals did not point to “pain or acute distress”.

The staff left him on a bed in the cell for the next four hours. When they went to check on him he was found lying listless on a bed facing the wall.

According to the lawsuit, the deputies still did not call an ambulance and instead loaded the sickly man into a van and drove him to West Valley Medical Center.

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, doctors decided to put him on life support stating that his situation was extremely serious.

He died on April 6 when his family requested for him to be taken off life support.

The case further alleges that a doctor at the medical facility informed family and friends that had Young been given proper medical care in time he would have survived.

One theory suggests that the staff ignored Young’s calls for help because he was included in a 2011 American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit alleging that jail employees ill-treated inmates who filed complaints about conditions and treatment inside the jail.

Young had claimed that he had food allergies but his dietary needs were not catered to.

He had also said that the medical staff at Canyon County Jail had doubled his medication which led to a severe reaction – he did not receive treatment for it.

The lawsuit was settled when the county agreed to change its processes.