jacksonville, florida – Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records confirm that a Jacksonville man did not receive essential medication while in Duval County Jail in November on a misdemeanor charge. After spending the weekend in prison, 54-year-old Dexter Barry died days after being released.
Records also reveal that the guards knew about the prescriptions needed to keep his body from rejecting the heart transplant.
more: Man dies after spending days without drugs in Duval County Jail, family says
According to Duke Health, stopping the use of anti-rejection drugs can lead to rapid rejection, permanent heart failure and death.
“The surgery cost me $4 million,” Barry told officers in body-cam footage during his arrest. “I built my first heart pump and got a transplant.”
Barry was charged with simple assault on November 18, 2022. She was charged with verbally threatening her neighbor in a dispute over Wi-Fi. The charge was a misdemeanor and carries a maximum sentence of 60 days in prison.
A video of Barry’s arrest shows that he spoke to officers about transplants and drugs seven times during his arrest.
“You can’t miss a single puff,” he told the arresting officer.
But he forgot to drink for days.
According to prison records, Barry had a check-up in prison on the scheduled date. His heart transplant and drug regimen also included prescriptions for mycophenolic acid, an immunosuppressant used to keep patients’ bodies from rejecting organ transplants, and was noted. His check-up was described as “emergency,” but the medication records Barry received in jail for more than two days show that Barry never received a heart-protective mycophenolic acid. It is shown that it was not.
“How are you going to give him blood pressure and cholesterol meds, but not the most important meds?” asked Barry’s daughter, Janelle King. “That’s my only question. And we all know by now that the rejection medication his father took was the most expensive one. So the only thing this has to do with it is money.” is.”
Barry had a dream of becoming a grandparent.
“The fact that my father is not here and that I am about to have a child is really heartbreaking for me,” King said.
Attorney Andrew Bondeld, who represents Barry’s family, said they waited five months before the JSO asked for public records proving that Barry did not receive drugs in prison. He said the records were released the morning after I-TEAM’s first article on Barry was published.
“I think the city of Jacksonville, the people who live here, and the people who run the city need to know exactly what’s going on in prisons, and I want to get answers,” said Bondeld. said.
A spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said she could not comment on Barry’s status due to pending lawsuits.
I-TEAM has also reached out to Armor Correctional Medical Services, the parent company of the contractor that provides medical care to inmates here at the prison, for comment.
WJXT News4JAX Copyright 2023 – All rights reserved.