By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in News
Wednesday, August 3, 2011, at 3:20 pm
An 18-year-old Florida man has died after suffering a medical emergency while in jail on a marijuana charge. Records show that Superintendent Anthony Flowers of the Palm Beach Juvenile Detention Center instructed staff not to call 9-1-1 as young Eric Perez lay dying.
Perez, 18, had been screaming and vomiting all night long, but jailers at the Palm Beach Juvenile Detention Center didn't call 9-1-1 until well after dawn, reports Carol Marbin Miller at the Miami Herald.
A detention center healthcare log shows the youth was not examined by a medical professional until 7:51 a.m. Four minutes later, lockup staff called a "Code White," meaning the young man's condition was critical, the log shows.
After the 2003 scandal involving the death of young Omar Paisley, who also died before paramedics could help him, the state had posted signs throughout 22 youth detention centers authorizing guards to call 9-1-1 at the first hint of an emergency.
In a cruel twist of irony, administrators promised in 2003 and 2004 that they would "treat every child as if he were your own" after guards waited three days before calling an ambulance for the doomed Paisley.
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