Sepsis is 'very treatable.' For inmates, it's often a death sentence.
Locked in a segregation cell at a county jail in Oklahoma, Terral Ellis Jr. begged for his inhaler, his voice raspy and desperate.
“I think I’m dying,” the 26-year-old father pleaded through the door.
Surveillance camera footage shows the jail nurse sauntered over to his cell, clearly exasperated. “There ain’t a damn thing f------ wrong with you,” she snapped, before slamming the door shut. A nearby inmate cracked a joke about the “boy who cried wolf.”
By the time paramedics arrived hours later, Ellis was barely conscious. He died that day from septic shock brought on by pneumonia – an infection he could have survived, if treated earlier.
Ellis’ story repeats itself hundreds of times each year in jails and prisons scattered from coast to coast. Arrests for infractions as minor as trespassing or a missed probation meeting turn into death sentences when correctional facilities delay or deny medical care that inmates need. Grieving families then sue for millions, often leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2025/11/20/sepsis-deaths-lawsuits-prisons-jails-infection-investigation/85755243007/
WARNING: Hot button issue! The attitude of that jail nurse is what is wrong with a lot of prison medical maltreatment., which I saw WAY too much of in my 30-year nursing career. Many jails/prisons hire LPNs, who aren't qualified for the work they do, doctors whose credentials may be on the shady side, etc,---and I suspect that the lower down the ladder, the worse it is because the pay scale is so low.
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in one of the country's largest jails years ago (E. coli 0157:H7), and yes, many of these patients developed sepsis. BECAUSE I was there investigating, most of the sickest inmates were transferred to area hospitals. The point is that not only must prison infirmaries RECOGNIZE pending sepsis--or infections serious enough to require rapid transfer but also be looking for such conditions. I am sorry about your patient. I can assure you that it is sadly not uncommon. Only because my team and I were in that facility investigating and implementing disease control measures (for 4 straight weeks), did a later state corrections team require them to ditch the private health care company and implement OUR recommendations.
I won't identify the state or city, or specific facility where this occurred, because frankly, the issues for inmate care are a nationwide disgrace so what I experienced is repeated to a major degree across the country, if not the specific outbreak issues. I know it, you know it, but when the general population of this country cannot receive adequate health care, it is hard to make changes or to get too many R legislators to care. But I have to both agree and somewhat disagree with you. Early indications of sepsis are so often missed--especially in the elderly that it is not a "given" that even common infections like UTIs will not result in a fatal sepsis. Your Ricky's story is abysmal and inexcusable. It should not happen, but I hate to say it, but the elderly in nursing homes come into my ER not infrequently with a similar history. Pneumonia is likewise a major cause of sepsis death in the elderly in nursing homes. The response I get when I remind the supervising physician for these facilities that their staff are inadequate in vaccinating for influenza (or not doing so at all)? "Well, they have to die of SOMETHING..." 
So, sorry to take this away from your specific issue, as I agree with you that it is inexcusable. But it is part of a larger and tragic issue that likewise needs to be addressed.
