CHARLESTON – The estate of a former inmate says obvious signs of alcohol withdrawal were ignored by jail staffers leading to the man’s death.
Sherrie Bell, administratrix of the estate of Brian Keith Riel, filed her complaint May 25 in Kanawha Circuit Court against PrimeCare Medical of West Virginia Inc. and the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“PrimeCare employees ignored blatant signs of alcohol withdrawal in Brian,” attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “He needed to be transferred to a higher care facility but instead was left for dead and the records were falsified.”
diTrapano
According to the complaint, Riel was incarcerated September 17, 2020, at North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County. Upon arrival, he was processed through the intake screening system. Prior bookings and records showed Riel had a “significant and well-documented” history of alcohol dependence and a propensity for delirium tremens.
The complaint notes Delirium Tremens and alcohol withdrawal are not the same. Delirium Tremens (or the DTs) is the most severe type of alcohol withdrawal involving profound confusion, autonomic hyperactivity and a propensity for delirium tremens.
The complaint says Riel was not placed into a detox watch despite a resting tachycardia of 108. He was placed into the general population at 6:29 a.m. by Licensed Practical Nurse Kendra Lipscomb-Poole despite being placed on one in his previous intake a month earlier. Registered Nurse Andrea Dodd requested a detox med set, but he still wasn’t placed on detox watch.
Riel refused the first dose of Librium, but there is no documentation of vital signs at the time.
“This is not an ‘informed refusal’ of treatment without such documentation,” the complaint states. “Mr. Riel may have been 24-48 hours into withdrawal confusion or even a delirium state, and yet the staff is allowing him to refuse treatment of this condition.”
The complaint says Riel refused subsequent detox medications.
“Decision making capacity to refuse care, especially if the condition is one involving altered mental status, must be clearly assessed, documented and witnessed by another staff member,” the complaint states, adding that Riel signed a refusal to consent to treatment on September 20, 2020 but that his handwriting and signature “are significantly worse” than previous records.
Coupled with the fact that he was documented as “delirious and incoherent” at 11 a.m. on September 20, the complaint said Riel could not have had decision-making capacity when he signed the refusal.
At 11:15 a.m., Riel was found by a nurse lying on his left side shaking and disoriented. He was taken to the jail’s medical unit and then taken by EMS to Ruby Memorial Hospital/WVU Medicine in Morgantown. He died later that day, less than 65 hours after being incarcerated.
Bell accuses PrimeCare Medical of medical negligence and the WVDOC of malicious conduct. She seeks compensatory damages for her losses and Riel’s pain and suffering, medical expenses and other losses. She also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Bell is being represented by diTrapano and Benjamin Adams of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charelston as well as by William C. Forbes and W. Jesse Forbes of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Duke Bloom.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-409