Source: Robert Stein, Amarillo Globe-News, March 29, 2017
A recent civil lawsuit alleges a “systemic failure” to provide medical care by Randall County jail officials led to a detainee suffering permanent brain damage. Jail personnel in 2015 failed to provide prescribed medication to Ralph Karl Ingrim, a 53-year-old man being held at the jail after an arrest for misdemeanor trespassing, despite requests to do so from Ingrim’s mother and signs Ingrim was “out of it,” the lawsuit says. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, Ingrim had a seizure, fell and suffered a skull fracture and brain bleed. … The lawsuit, filed Friday in Amarillo’s federal court, comes about two months after Randall County settled a wrongful death lawsuit also involving allegations of withheld seizure medication at the jail. The suit also says a third person sued the county for failing to provide anti-seizure medication. … The recent suit names as defendants Randall County; Sheriff Joel Richardson; private medical service provider Correct Care Solutions, LLC; and jailers Nick Wright and Cristina Gibbons. It alleges the jailers were aware of Ingrim’s need for anti-seizure medication but ignored it, denying him constitutionally required care. The lawsuit further claims Correct Care, which contracted with the county to provide medical services for inmates, “chronically understaffed” the jail and did not properly evaluate or monitor Ingrim. … As evidence of a recurring problem at the jail, the lawsuit cites a 2014 incident in which a 52-year-old Randall County inmate named Wendell Carl Simmons was also allegedly injured after being denied anti-seizure medication. … Correct Care was also named as a defendant in the Simmons case. …