A judge is allowing to go forward a lawsuit filed by the family of a mentally ill Alexandria jail inmate who died in custody. The sister of 24-year-old Farah Saleh Farah says in the suit that her brother died of dehydration in January 2008 at the Alexandria Detention Center after having refused to take his medication for schizophrenia. She sued the company that handles medical care at the facility in September. A federal judge in Alexandria has denied the company’s motion to dismiss the case.
The wrongful-death suit alleges that the Correct Care Solutions employees — two nurses and a medical administrator — should have secured emergency care for Farah when he stopped eating and drinking and recognized that his dehydration could be fatal.
Farah had been jailed for a probation violation for carrying a concealed handgun.
Correct Care Solutions officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
In a court filing responding to the lawsuit, the company denies that Farah stopped taking his medication, that his mental condition worsened, and says his sister has not “suffered any cognizable injuries or damages as a result of any acts or omissions on the part of the defendants.”
Farah, an Alexandria resident, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2004.
According to the suit filed by Obah Walker, Farah “ate and drank virtually nothing” while in jail for the probation violation
for 13 days and medical staff didn’t treat him, even though guards described his condition as “cadaverous.”
Two days before his death, a nurse provided no care, despite Farah’s signs of dehydration, the suit says. It also claims that the nurse ignored Farah’s requests for an IV and a doctor.
“She simply left him alone” in his cell, the suit alleges. “She did not see him again until he was on the verge of dying from dehydration some 48 hours later.”
The staff knew about Farah’s mental health problems and were negligent by failing to treat his dehydration and make him take medication, the lawsuit says.
