Family of late inmate sues staff at Cibola County jail

Complaint says man died when medical emergency went untreated in facility

The family of a Grants man who died a year ago in the Cibola County jail while awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge is suing the guards and medical staff of the jail, saying they failed to take the man’s complaints seriously, even as he was vomiting blood.

According to the lawsuit, filed on the man’s behalf last week in the state’s First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, 50-year-old Douglas Edminsten, a military veteran and motorcycle enthusiast who had been jailed on a DWI charge and traffic offenses, died early July 8, 2016, after being denied treatment overnight for a violent illness.

The jail’s chief medical official had dismissed the man’s concerns the previous night, the suit says, telling a staff member by phone that care for Edminsten’s condition could wait until the morning. The suit, alleging wrongful death, names Health Services Administrator Michael Hildenbrandt as a defendant, along with three other jail employees, two of whom no longer work for Cibola County.

Perhaps the most outrageous part of the story, said Glenn Valdez, an attorney for Edminsten’s family, is that in the early morning hours, as Edminsten lay on the floor of the pod outside his cell, with one fellow inmate cradling his head and another reading to him from the Bible, jail staff unofficially pronounced him dead and called New Mexico State Police to report the death. At the time, Valdez said, Edminsten was still alive.

About 20 minutes later, a medical staffer checked Edminsten’s pulse with an oximeter, discovered he was alive and finally called an ambulance, the suit says. At that point, however, it was too late.

The complaint says Edminsten, whose name is spelled Edmisten in some documents, started asking for medical help around 10 p.m. July 7, but jail staff downplayed the seriousness of

his condition and sent him back to his cell.

He continued vomiting blood, the complaint says, and fellow inmates tried to alert jail guards. They smeared his blood on the window of their pod, kicked the door and told guards several times that Edminsten needed help.

Eventually, the complaint says, guards allowed him to visit the medical unit another time. But he was sent back to his cell shortly after without any treatment.

A staff member had consulted with Hildenbrandt by phone, and Hildenbrandt told the worker that Edminsten was stable and could be tended to the next day, according to the suit.

Hildenbrandt, who still holds the position, declined to comment on the case.

County Manager Tony Boyd said he hadn’t seen the suit and couldn’t comment on it.

The suit says Edminsten had suffered from cirrhosis, a disease that causes impaired liver function and interferes with blood clotting, putting a person at risk of bleeding to death.

An autopsy showed Edminsten died from a gastric bleed, which likely was worsened by his liver disease. Still, Valdez said in a phone interview Friday, he could have survived had he been taken to a hospital for treatment.

“They are trying to make this out as if he died from a terminal illness, and that’s not the truth,” Valdez said. “This is not some guy who was on death’s door from his medical condition. This is a guy who had a medical emergency, and they didn’t help him. He was throwing up blood, and they didn’t help him.”

Edminsten had been in the jail for about three weeks when he died. He had been picked up on three outstanding warrants for misdemeanor traffic offenses, including charges of DWI and leaving the scene of an accident that did not involve injuries. One of the cases against him was dismissed while he was in jail. Another was adjudicated, and he was sentenced to seven days in jail, time he had served.

A jail administrator said Friday that her notes show Edminsten was supposed to have been released on the day he began vomiting blood, but for a reason not listed in the file, a bondsman who had posted bail for him had pulled the bond back, leaving him in jail until his trial on the remaining charges.

Edminsten’s longtime friend Aaron Dean said Edminsten had made a living building storage sheds, had served in the U.S. Army and was an active member of the American Legion Riders. He was originally from Pennsylvania, but had moved to Grants from Missouri about seven years before his death.

“He was outgoing and helpful,” Dean said of his friend. “We had ridden motorcycles together all over the country. We had done a lot of stuff together.”