A federal lawsuit filed by a former inmate against the Broward County Sheriff’s Office is set to go to trial in Miami on Tuesday. Dana Jones is suing the Sheriff’s Office and Armor Correctional Health Services for medical costs and unspecified damages following a severe beating he received by other inmates while he was detained at the jail in December 2006.
Jones’s brain injuries were so severe that he went into a coma. The 46-year-old now resides at a nursing home in Pompano Beach. According to Jones, the Sheriff’s Office and the jail’s medical provider neglected to protect him from other inmates, ignored his prior mental condition, and botched an investigation into whether deputies at the jail were involved in the altercation that lead to his beating.
Other inmates that were at the jail when the beating happened said Jones had made a racist remark to two of the detention deputies, who happened to be black. He was found on the floor of the jail and was gurgling his own blood. Jones’s family members were not told for six days that he was in the hospital. They were initially informed that he hurt himself in a fall accident.
A traumatic brain injury can occur when someone has experienced a sudden blow or jolt to the head. A TBI can result in a number of serious conditions, such as memory loss, loss of one or more senses, behavioral issues, communication problems, paralysis, coma, and death. It can be very costly to treat and live with a TBI.
Causes of traumatic brain injuries can include:
• Medical malpractice
• Truck accidents
• Car accidents
• Bicycle accident
• Gunshot wounds
• Severe beatings
• Fall accidents
• Construction accidents
• Near drowning accidents
Lawsuit over severe beating in Broward County jail ready for trial, Sun-Sentinel.com, September 1, 2008
Broward jail conditions focus of federal lawsuit, MySunCoast.com, September 1, 2008
Related Web Resources:
Broward County Sheriff’s Office
What is Traumatic Brain Injury?, CDC.gov