A first-of-its-kind investigation by the AJC shows how at least a dozen inmates have died — and died horribly — because they didn’t get the medication or help they needed
After Douglas Brown was booked into the Fulton County Jail for failing to pay child support, he repeatedly complained that he wasn’t receiving his twice-daily insulin for his diabetes. Despite his pleas, he missed doses and his health grew progressively worse.
Over the next 10 days, the 41-year-old Army veteran struggled with increasing pain, seizures, incontinence, confusion and lethargy until, finally, he was found dead on the floor of his cell with traces of vomit on his face.
Brown was among at least a dozen people who have died in Georgia’s prisons and jails over the last decade due to diabetic ketoacidosis.
Like Brown, many died gruesomely. And like Brown, they died because those responsible for their care failed to properly treat a disease managed daily by millions of Americans. Diabetic ketoacidosis, often simply referred to as DKA, is fatal only when diabetes is left untreated. As blood sugar surges, the blood turns acidic. Eventually, organs shut down.
Some 2.3 million Americans are imprisoned in the massive US prison system, where their health is often neglected and care is extremely expensive.