Suffering or Death of Correctional Facility Inmates From Missing Medication

But his 10-hour workday ground to a screeching halt, and to make matters worse, his boss had just fired him by phone for something Miconi claimed wasn’t his fault.

That was Friday, April 15, the beginning of Miconi’s three-day stint in the Weber County Jail, a nightmarish weekend that ended the following Monday with an ambulance ride to McKay-Dee Hospital.

After three days without his blood pressure medication, the Lortab he routinely took for chronic pain and the Xanax he used to alleviate his anxiety and help keep his high blood pressure in check, the 6-foot-2-inch Miconi had dropped 22 pounds due to severe vomiting and diarrhea, Miconi said in an interview with the Standard-Examiner, adding paramedics told him he had likely suffered damage to his heart muscle.

When Miconi was booked into the Weber County Jail Friday evening, his blood pressure measured 205 over 120. By Monday it had dropped to 178 over 119, still elevated well above the 140 over 90 “high” range determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Miconi said he did not receive any of his regular medications that weekend.

The CDC website details why high blood pressure should be taken seriously: “High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, both of which are leading causes of death in the US . . . Doctors, nurses and others in health care systems should identify and treat high blood pressure at every visit.”

On Sunday after being taken into custody, Miconi was given medications to control diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, and the next morning he was given a small dose of Ativan to treat his anxiety. Ativan belongs to a family of pharmaceuticals that caused his removal from the general jail population to a small cell he would share with two other men for 23 hours a day. But when he vomited near one of them Monday, a brief fight ensued that led to his removal, Miconi said.

Results of an electrocardiogram (EKG) test administered to Miconi at the jail shortly after the fight indicated a possible left ventricular strain, which the National Institutes of Health says is associated with a poor prognosis.

Miconi was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in an ambulance that picked him up at 2:11 p.m. Monday, and records indicate his release from jail at 2:16 p.m., even though he was scheduled to receive several in-jail medications the next day. The ambulance ride cost $1,845 and his brief stint in the emergency room racked up $3,711 in charges.

Public records show four charges filed more than a month later against Miconi, who claims he’s innocent of three of them — a DUI because of the Lortab in his blood sample, possession of drug paraphernalia due to a piece of plastic ballpoint pen found in a wallet in the work truck he was driving and improper usage of lanes when he pulled over.

Miconi, was also charged with failure to wear a seat belt, and he admitted that he was not wearing a seat belt at the time. The DUI and drug charges are class B misdemeanors, the other two are traffic infractions.

Weber’s jail policy

Dr. Kay Haw, nursing administrator at the Weber County Correctional Facility, said their policy is for a nurse to see and conduct intake screenings of each inmate within their first two hours in the jail. At that point, they’re asked specific questions, and Haw said they rely on the inmate to report what medications they routinely take. Then her staff contacts the inmate’s pharmacy to verify if the prescription is current. Any narcotic use would mean moving the inmate out of the general jail population where such drugs are subject to abuse.

Haw said if a prescribed drug is not part of the jail’s formulary, they can administer an alternative and equivalent medication once they obtain a physician’s approval.

In Miconi’s case, Haw said he wasn’t very specific at intake and might not have known the exact names of his blood pressure medication. Attempts to verify prescriptions after a pharmacy’s business hours often result in delays.

But Miconi’s EKG results at the jail also fall short of indicating the problems were brought on by his three-day stay there, Haw added.

“He could have been walking around with that for years. That’s very much a potential,” Haw said, adding that transporting an inmate by ambulance to the hospital is done on a case-by-case basis based on individual symptoms.

When asked about possible staffing shortages, Haw said the jail has 24/7 nursing coverage, and she has the ability to reach a provider any time.

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