Sandra Bland required med to prevent seizures and the jail's paperwork FAILS TO SHOW SHE GOT IT

[pnwmom]

The paperwork shows that she said 1) she had epilepsy and 2) she took Keppra, an epilepsy drug

However, there is no form in the paperwork showing that a doctor there prescribed it for her. And a bottle of Keppra is NOT listed among the items she had with her on check-in. If she had seen a doctor or a doctor had prescibed a med, that should have been included with the released documents.

It strongly appears that she went for 3 days with no epilepsy treatment. Keppra, if suddenly discontinued, can lead to seizures, including fatal seizures. It can also lead to suicide.

From the jail's "prison handbook."

http://prisonhandbook.com/3924/waller-jail-hempstead-tx/#intake-discharge




Inmate Medications


If you are on any type of prescription medication, you will be allowed to continue taking it while in jail. When you are first processed, you will be asked what medication you take. You will then be referred to the jail nurse or doctor who will be in charge of monitoring your health and prescribing your medication.

On another place on its website, the jail says if you take a prescription med, you should have a family member bring it from home for you. Sandra's bottle is probably still in her purse in her car on an impound lot.


From an article about an inmate at another TX prison who went for weeks without his prescribed HIV med -- this is not unusual in Texas:

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/jail-misery-6575612

And yet Killian was not given HIV meds when he arrived on July 31, nor was he allowed to have them brought to him. He was simply locked up with everyone else, moving from one holding cell to another, each so crowded, he wrote later, that "they had to make people who were sitting on the floor stand up so they could push us in." After three days, he arrived at last in the clinic, where, he says, he explained his medical condition "for the third or fourth or maybe 15th time to no avail." Finally, on August 5, Killian borrowed from a relative and managed to bond out "so I could get my medicine." Then, sadly, on September 11, he reported late to a pre-trial drug-testing and was tossed back in.

Snip

It turns out that everyone who enters the jail on prescription meds experiences a break in their regimen, and that lapses in HIV treatment tend to be especially long. Dr. Michael Seale, the jail's director of health services, acknowledged the importance of minimizing such delays but said, "You can't go ahead without appropriate information." Thus, the clinic's thorough routine: Instead of confirming an inmate's claim of HIV by simply calling the inmate's doctor, the jail finds it necessary to test the inmate all over again before prescribing medication.

[MADem]

1. So disgraceful. I think the feds need to take over that PD and clean house.

I don't think they can be trusted "to protect and serve."

It's outrageous.

[samsingh]

2. i believe they are guilty of wilful or unwilful homicide. they allowed her to die.

[samsingh]

3. the big effin cop who had to prove he was a real man by beating up a women needs to be

held accountable.,

[brush]

4. Possible, but I still think they killed her

I know I'm not the only to notice that we're all now talking about her killing herself instead of her being killed.

And the suicide meme came from the cops, not her family or friends who would know.

On the recording of her phone call to her family she sounded completely normal, as normal as one can be for being locked up for not signaling a lane change and for not putting out a cigarette in her own car. This phone call happened on a Saturday and she was allegedly found dead on Monday morning.

So she went from that tough, big city, young woman activist with a new job to look forward to to being a suicidal wreck in 24 hours?

I'm not falling for that okie doke.

[pnwmom]

7. You missed the other option that is not suicide.

If they kept her from having her needed seizure med, and she died of a seizure, they killed her as much as if they stuck a gun to her head.

[brush]

11. Okay. That could also be in the equation.

But doesn't is seem she would have mentioned needing meds in her call to her family?

[pnwmom]

12. What I heard the family's attorney say addressed the issue of depression without addressing

the possibility of epilepsy.

We all heard Sandra's statement on the audio-tape. I don't think she was lying. And if she had epilepsy, it is very likely she was taking a drug like Keppra.

And I don't see why the jail would forge her signature on a form that said she was taking Keppra. There is no indication they actually gave her Keppra, so it isn't to their advantage to make it falsely appear that she needed it.

[brush]

13. No I'm not saying they're falsifying that . . .

It just seems if it was so critical to have the medication she would have asked her family to help her get it in the call.

I don't know the frequency of dosages needed for that.

Are some cases more acute than others and need meds daily?

Anyone know about this?

[pnwmom]

14. Her family was in Illinois. I had a friend whose brother was in jail and not being

treated for his chronic illness, and even though she was in the same city, she couldn't get the medication to him. The jail didn't care and wouldn't help.

And yes, it is critical for many epileptics that they not skip even a single day of medication. I've had two relatives with two different kinds and neither of them could skip a day. Sandra probably didn't have medicine for three days.

The proper way to stop Keppra is to slowly reduce the dose, over a period of days or weeks.

This is what the FDA says about Keppra, the drug Sandra probably didn't have while she was in jail:

Stopping KEPPRA suddenly can cause serious problems. Stopping a seizure
medicine suddenly can cause seizures that will not stop (status epilepticus).

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/UCM152832.pdf

[hamsterjill]

5. Question about news conference yesterday

I was driving and had CNN on in the car yesterday when Ms. Bland's family held their press conference. Portions of the broadcast were plain, and some portions would cut out (i.e., when I was going under bridges, etc.).

Did I hear correctly in that news conference that the attorney representing her family stated that the family did not know of any medications that Sandra was taking - whether it be for epilepsy or for drugs?

I could have missed some of the conversation obviously. Did anyone else listen and hear that statement? Is my understanding correct? Or is my understanding incorrect?

[pnwmom]

8. The attorney's statement was ambiguous, IMO. He denied the part about drugs for depression

but it sounded to me like he didn't address the issue of drugs for seizures.

[hamsterjill]

9. Thank you.

n/t

[Igel]

6. Sure.

Unless you look at the form Bland actually filled out and signed, where she said she was taking no medications.

I can't square that circle. Since I can't reconcile the two accounts, and before I get outraged over this I need to know I'm getting outraged over facts or suspicions. Until then I either say both accounts or I say, "Dunno."


As a friend used to say, "The devil's in the details." Every single incident where somebody's been asked what's happened and then come back a couple of hours later with the same question again or asked others have a mess of contradictions to deal with. Including me. "I really said that? No, that was wrong." One way to tell that a story's fictional and planned is to look for errors and inconsistencies. If there are none, it's like the perfect lab report, where everything was done exactly according to the protocol you're given and the results perfectly match theory. Yeah, it's possible ... But highly implausible.

[pnwmom]

10. She also signed the form that said she had epilepsy and listed the drug Keppra. It was PAGE ONE.

It doesn't really matter that there was a discrepancy in the forms. It was the jail's job to reconcile the two forms -- not overlook the one that said she had epilepsy (actually, that was mentioned in two different places) and listed the drug Keppra. They should have had her looked at by a medical person and there is no record that they did.

Don't forget -- she is also recorded on audio telling the officer that she had epilepsy. That confirms the signed report where she said that again and mentioned Keppra. It could be that when she encountered the other form where she said "no" she was confused and thought that meant "any additional medications." Or she just got confused. Her signature on that page looked much worse than any others the others so I even wondered if she signed it herself.