Family begs jail to give man life-saving medicine — but get ignored, suit says. He died

A man born with a potentially life-threatening condition died after spending four days in a Virginia jail, where he wasn’t given his daily medications until it was too late, according to a new federal lawsuit.

The family of Brad Hensley, who was held as a pretrial detainee at the Henry County Adult Detention Center, pleaded with officers and jail nurses to give him his medicine and warned he would die without it, a complaint filed in the Western District of Virginia says.

Hensley had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which can send a person’s kidneys into a crisis if untreated. He needed two doses of two different prescription steroids everyday as prescribed, the complaint says.

After entering the jail Aug. 2, 2022, Hensley wouldn’t receive his medicine until the evening of Aug. 4, when he was too ill to stomach an oral dose and regurgitated the medication in front of a jail nurse, according to the complaint. What should’ve happened next, according to the suit, was an immediate transfer to the hospital.

The jail never returned at least 18 calls from Hensley’s mother and sister on Aug. 3, 4 and 5, when they urged in voice messages that he needed “emergency hospitalization and treatment due to the missed doses of his mandatory medications.”

Hensley wasn’t taken to a hospital, and he never got the chance to defend himself in court. He died in jail at age 41 on Aug. 6, 2022, according to the suit.

He was facing charges of petit larceny and possession of burglary tools, according to the Martinsville Bulletin, which first reported the lawsuit.

In Virginia, a person is charged with petit larceny when they’re accused of stealing something worth less than $5 from someone, or when they’re accused of stealing goods worth less than $1,000.

“Brad’s life would have been saved if the healthcare providers and deputies at Henry County simply did their jobs and provided Brad with his medication in a timely fashion,” said attorneys representing his family in an April 26 news release.

“Because they refused to do so, a loving son and brother unnecessarily lost his life,” they said.

Hensley’s parents, Robert and Robin Hensley, are suing the jail’s medical provider Wellpath LLC. The suit also names several Wellpath employees staffed at the jail, a Henry County Sheriff’s Office deputy lieutenant and former county sheriff as defendants.

Wellpath, Henry County and the sheriff’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News on April 26.

Man accused of ‘faking’ illness

Following his first day in jail, Hensley was vomiting blood on Aug. 3, according to the complaint.

He was unable to eat, “could barely keep fluids down” and since he was too weak to shower on his own, other inmates helped him, the complaint says. Hensley and the fellow detainees repeatedly tried to request medical help on Aug. 3, according to the complaint.

One correctional officer, who wasn’t identified in the complaint, accused Hensley of “faking it,” the complaint states.

The next day, on Aug. 4, 2022, Hensley continued to ask for help as he was dehydrated from vomiting and diarrhea and showed other signs of an adrenal crisis, including fever, weakness and fatigue, according to the complaint.

“Man, I’m not going to make it, I’m going to die in here,” Hensley said when he was too sick to stand for a “shakedown” conducted by deputies, according to the complaint.

“I need my medicine,” he said, according to the lawsuit.

Johns Hopkins Medicine warns an “adrenal crisis often happens when people with (congenital adrenal hyperplasia) are sick, have a fever or an infection, undergo surgery or stop their medications.”

When people experience an adrenal crisis, Johns Hopkins Medicine urges to “call 911 or seek medical care immediately.”

Hensley’s mother was ultimately able to reach a sheriff lieutenant on the phone Aug. 4, when the deputy told her Hensley would have to wait to get his medication at night, the complaint says.

By the time the Wellpath nurse assistant unsuccessfully tried to give him his medication, resulting in him throwing up, Hensley had missed his doses for nearly three days, according to the complaint.

The day before his death, Hensley’s medical file said he “refused” to take his prescribed medication, the complaint says.

The lawsuit states his “inability to take” his oral medication was obvious, but no one sought medical treatment for him.

The next day, he was dead.

His autopsy report listed his cause of death as “Acute fentanyl toxicity with adrenal crisis due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia contributing,” the lawsuit says.

Attorneys Jonathan E. Halperin, Darrell J. Getman, Devon Munro and Ben Byrd, who represent Hensley’s family, said they “are still investigating how exactly Brad died” and suspect he was exposed to fentanyl while in jail.

He “either did not take the fentanyl voluntarily … or, even if introduced voluntarily, the fentanyl was introduced into his system at a time when his adrenal crisis was so advanced that Brad was likely to succumb to the adrenal crisis notwithstanding the fentanyl,” the attorneys said in the news release.

Jail nurse charged

In March 2023, former Wellpath jail nurse Deborah Sue Damron, who’s named as a defendant in the lawsuit, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hensley’s death, according to the Martinsville Bulletin.

She’s due to appear in Henry County Circuit Court for a pretrial hearing on May 28, court records show.

Information regarding her legal representation in the criminal case wasn’t immediately available.

Hensley’s parents are seeking an unspecified amount in damages with the lawsuit and demand a trial by jury.

“During the several days that Defendants knowingly deprived Brad of his urgent prescribed medications for a known adrenal disorder and watched him writhe in distress while heading towards foreseeable death, they also ignored the frantic warnings of concerned family members,” the complaint states.

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