Duty to Provide Reasonable Medical Care to Jailee

By Sally A. Roberts

The general police duty to provide medical care is greatest when the injuries are caused by, or occur in the process of the arrest itself. There must be knowledge and notice of possible responsibility for the plaintiff’s condition. The United States Supreme Court has held the government is obligated to supply necessary medical treatment.1

Thus, Calloway v. City of New Orleans 2 imposed liability upon a sheriff for the premature birth and death of an arrestee’s baby when his employees failed to follow established procedures in not responding fully to complaints that she was in labor and hemorrhaging. A seven-hour delay in hospitalization was held to be negligent. Liability may well depend upon whether the need for medical treatment was apparent.

In Aycock v. City of Shreveport,3 officers had observed that the plaintiff-decedent was unsteady, after an auto accident near his home. The decedent coherently informed an officer that he had imbibed some alcohol and some prescription drugs but was not visibly injured. He was arrested for DWI, jailed in the belief that his condition reflected alcoholism, and released a few hours later. He died of a brain hemorrhage that evening or the next morning. Failure to administer a breathalyzer test immediately was not negligent since it would not have detected the presence or influence of drugs. It has be held that although an inebriated arrestee’s strange conduct was consistent with drug use, he apparently coherent denial precluded a finding of negligence.4

The decision in Aycock reflects the tendency not to impose liability when symptoms may be consistent with either alcoholism or something more serious. In Solberg v. County of Yellowstone5, the decedent had been arrested for drunk driving and a license violation and had been jailed for failure to pay the fine imposed after his plea of guilty. He died of delirium tremens and extreme alcohol withdrawal, but no liability was found since the symptoms evident to his jailers were consistent with those ordinarily found in non-dangerous forms of alcohol withdrawal. A state law requiring transportation of apprehended alcoholics to treatment facilities was held to be inapplicable to one arrested for a crime. Although the symptoms of delirium tremens (life threatening), and alcohol withdrawal (usually non-life threatening) are similar, the decision put great weight on the fact that the jail manual had alerted jailers to call for medical aid if trembling and hallucination occurred and the decedent had not been hallucinatory.

There are limits: in Fruge v. City of New Orleans,6 an arrested diabetic who wore a diabetic bracelet foamed at the mouth while incarcerated for public drunkenness. The need for

1 City of Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 463 U.S. 239 (1983). 2 Calloway v. City of New Orleans, 524 So. 2d 182, 186 (La. Ct. App. 1988). 3 Aycock v. City of Shreveport, 535 So. 2d 1006, 1015 (La. Ct. App. 1988). 4 Brown v. Lee, 639 So. 2d 897 (La. Ct. App. 1994). 5 Solberg v. County of Yellowstone, 659 P.2d 290, 293-295 (Mont. 1983). 6 Fruge v. City of New Orleans, 613 So. 2d 811, 815-817 (La. Ct. App. 1993). 1 medical treatment under the circumstances was obvious. Failure to inventory decedent’s wallet, to have medical personnel on hand, or to monitor was held to be negligent.

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