NEW ORLEANS – Orleans Parish authorities have filed a lawsuit blaming LSU Hospital for the death of a 24-year-old inmate two years ago.
The lawsuit says the LSU Health Sciences Center had been contracted to run the jail’s psychiatric ward, but had left it understaffed at the time Shawn Duncan died from dehydration.
Duncan’s death also has spawned an older, federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against Orleans Parish authorities by the victim’s family.
Duncan’s autopsy and accompanying medical records indicate Duncan was held in restraints for about 40 hours before he was found dead by another inmate. The autopsy said the lack of fluids in Duncan’s body was so severe that he had no fluid in his eyes, and his stomach was dry.
Duncan was jailed Aug. 3, 2001, after smashing his vehicle into two parked cars while driving drunk.
When he died in custody a week later, then-Sheriff Charles Foti said Duncan had been seen by a psychiatrist every day, including at least 18 hours before his death. He attributed Duncan’s death to complications from ingesting drugs he stole from other inmates.
However, the sheriff’s office, now led by interim Sheriff William Hunter, has put forth a different version of events in the lawsuit filed Jan. 28.
The Sheriff’s Office says LSU was awarded a contract to run its psychiatric ward, and Dr. Michael Higgins was the psychiatrist LSU appointed to run the unit. At the time of Duncan’s death, the suit alleges, Higgins was on leave and LSU had not sent a psychiatrist to replace him.
“As a result of this breach, the morning sick call was not conducted, Shawn Duncan remained in five-point restraints and (died) later that day,’’ the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims that Dr. Howard Osofsky, director of LSU’s psychiatry department, was responsible for finding a psychiatrist to replace Higgins but failed to do so.
Instead, LSU “wrongfully appointed (prison medical director) Dr. Richard Inglese, who is neither a psychiatrist nor a physician from the LSU School of Medicine,’’ the lawsuit states.
Attorneys for LSU could not be reached for comment by the Times-Picayune.
Osofsky said he was unaware of the new lawsuit. He declined comment because of his role as a defendant in the earlier lawsuit filed by Duncan’s family. But Osofsky and other LSU defendants who are named individually in that lawsuit have denied liability.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in July 2003, on behalf of Duncan’s two children, against the Sheriff’s Office and medical professionals responsible for the jail’s psychiatric unit. The lawsuit alleges that Duncan was held in restraints for 42 hours without food, water or bathroom privileges, despite a Sheriff’s Office medical policy that no inmate can be held in restraints for more than 12 hours.
In the morning just before his death, Duncan was heard “cursing, yelling or screaming,’’ according to the family’s lawsuit, but nobody on the medical staff intervened.
Mary Howell, attorney for Duncan’s family, said the lawsuit by the Sheriff’s Office against LSU comes as a breakthrough in the case.
“The good news, if there can be any good news from this type of tragedy, is that this will lead to policy changes to hopefully keeping this from happening again,’’ Howell said. “The unfortunate thing is that, still, nobody wants to step up and take responsibility for what happened here. It was a terrible death, and it involved a great deal of suffering.’’
A trial on the federal lawsuit has been set for December. No trial date has been set in the lawsuit against LSU by the Sheriff’s Office.
