Inmate Dies 2 Weeks Shy of Parole After Dialysis Error

Utah prisoner Ramon C. Estrada would have been paroled April 21
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2015 2:45 AM CDT
Inmate Dies After Dialysis No-Show
This image provided by the Utah Department of Corrections shows inmate Ramon C. Estrada.   (AP Photo/Utah Department of Corrections)

An inmate from Utah just weeks away from parole died after a dialysis technician failed to show up—for two days in a row. The Utah Department of Corrections says 62-year-old Ramon C. Estrada died on Sunday of "apparent cardiac arrest due to renal failure," the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The department says Estrada was scheduled to have dialysis treatment on Friday but nobody showed up that day or the next, and he died while prison staff were preparing to take him to a hospital Sunday night, reports the Deseret News. Six other inmates who had also been waiting for treatment were hospitalized, a department spokeswoman says, and one of them was still in the hospital yesterday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the University of Utah Hospital, which was supposed to send a technician to the prison in Draper, tells the AP there appears to have been a miscommunication and there will be a "thorough review of the circumstances that led to this unacceptable mistake." The corrections department also describes the delay in medical care as unacceptable and has suspended its clinical services bureau director while Estrada's death is investigated, reports the Tribune. Estrada, a Mexican national who had been in prison since a 2005 rape conviction, was scheduled to be released on parole on April 21. (County jailers in Alabama are being sued for allegedly withholding basic medical care to cut costs, leading to the deaths of at least three inmates.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X