A federal prison is currently being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department after an inmate died of a ruptured spleen after complaining about the pain for nine days.
According to published reports, Adam Montoya died after pleading with guards for nine days to be taken to a doctor.
After an autopsy, the coroner found that the 26-year-old inmate not only suffered from hepatitis, but cancer and HIV as well. Ultimately it was ruled that cancer was the cause of death causing his spleen to burst and Montoya bled to death internally.
What is more shocking than how Montoya died, was the treatment that the coroner’s office found had been administered to aid in relief-over the counter Tylenol.
“He shouldn’t have died in agony like that,” Coroner Dennis Conover said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “He had been out there long enough that he should have at least died in the hospital.”
Montoya who was imprisoned for writing counterfeit checks, had been given nothing to ease the excruciating pain that no doubt wracked his body for days or weeks before death.
The coroner said guards should have been aware that something was seriously wrong with the inmate. Outside experts agree that the symptoms of cancer and hepatitis would have been hard to miss: dramatic weight loss, a swollen abdomen, yellow eyes.
During Montoya’s final days, he “consistently made requests to the prison for medical attention, and they wouldn’t give it to him,” said his father, Juan Montoya, who described how his son repeatedly punched the panic button. Three inmates corroborated that account in interviews with The Associated Press.
The younger Montoya was taken to the prison clinic one day for “maybe five, 10 minutes,” his father said. “And they gave him Tylenol, and that was it. He suffered a lot.”
The FBI recently completed an investigation into Montoya’s death and gave its findings to the Justice Department, which is reviewing the case.
If federal prosecutors conclude that Montoya’s civil rights were violated, they could take action against the prison, its guards, or both. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, saying that the matter was still being investigated.
