By Sarah Whites-Koditschek | swhites-koditschek@al.com

This article was originally published on AL.com.

 

A second Alabama jail inmate struggling with mental illness was found near death, with hypothermia, after being left for hours on a concrete cell floor, a lawsuit alleges.

The case centers around Joshua “Caleb” House, a man who, in 2024, was locked up in a jail in Calhoun County.

“Once again an Alabama man, through the deliberate indifference of those entrusted to care for him, was found in jail with a body temperature of 72 degrees, which should have killed him, but somehow he survived,” his attorney, Jon Goldfarb said in a statement.

House was locked in the jail on Nov. 2, 2024 after staying two nights at a psychiatric unit in Gadsden for issues related to his schizoaffective and bipolar disorders, according to the suit, filed in federal court this month by House’s court-appointed guardian, Melanie Daughtry.

The death of Tony Mitchell in Walker County in 2023 occurred under similar circumstances and led to an FBI investigation and 25 indictments. Both House and Mitchell were taken to nearby hospitals with body temperatures of 72 degrees after developing hypothermia, according to lawsuits in both instances. However, Mitchell did not survive.

Defendants named in House’s suit are Sgt. Cody Davis of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office and QCHC, INC., a Birmingham-based company that provides healthcare to correctional institutions. Davis could not be reached for comment and QCHC did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the suit, on Nov. 13, 2024 House was put in a suicide watch cell by himself and was denied medical care for eleven hours by Sgt. Davis. The suit alleges a mental health provider tried to visit House but was unable to because there was no officer there to escort the therapist to the cell.

Caleb House, seen here with his mother, is suing Alabama
authorities, alleging he suffered hypothermia in a local jail.

“Defendant Davis prevented health care practitioners… from accessing (House) in deliberate indifference to (his) serious medical needs,” the complaint states.

The jail’s suicide watch protocol required House to be assessed every four hours, according to the suit. A few weeks later, on Dec. 2, jail medical records by a physician noted House was not doing well:

“Downhill course since intake—has been placed on (suicide watch) voicing that he was suicidal… progressed to peeing on floor and wrapping… in blanket & lying in urine—scheduled to see provider today.”

The suit alleges that House was not able to regulate his body temperature on suicide watch because his clothes had been taken away, he was wearing a fabric turtle suit, a garment for people on suicide watch, and was in a cell with a cold, concrete floor.

The suit alleges that care providers employed by QCHC did not record that House had urinated on the floor and was lying in his urine in their Medical Observation Record. While the record states vital signs should be documented every eight hours at minimum, there were none in his medical records from QCHC.

“All health care providers employed by defendant QCHC are aware of the substantial risk of harm that inmates may become hypothermic while lying naked on bare concrete,” the complaint states.

Despite experiencing hypothermia, lying on the floor of his cell, the QCHC observation record notes “no needs voiced” by House on Dec. 2 at 9:30 a.m., about thirty minutes after he was given medication, according to the suit. There were no other entries in the record on that day until 6:30 p.m. when he was found and seen by a jail physician, Dr. Hurley, an employee of QCHC, according to the suit.

“(The nurse) cannot account for his activity from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. but states that he ‘has been alone,’” a doctor wrote in his medical record at the hospital, according to the suit.

House was taken to the emergency room at the Gadsden Regional Medical Center and arrived at 7:32 p.m. with a diagnosis of “severe hypothermia, hypotension and bradycardia possibly related to sepsis.” In the ER he was found to be unresponsive with a temperature of 72.7 degrees and a heart rate in the 30s.

He spent several days on a respirator before being discharged on Dec. 11, the suit alleges. His discharge diagnosis included several significant medical issues: severe sepsis with septic shock, Bibasilar pneumonitis, severe hypothermia, hypotension and bradycardia possibly related to sepsis, Lactic Acidosis, Metabolic encephalopathy, Transaminitis and Thrombocytopenia.

House survived. In Mitchell’s case in 2023, however, the inmate died of hypothermia in the Walker County Jail while on suicide watch in a cell with concrete floors in a cell nicknamed “the freezer”. Mitchell also had a history of mental illness.

A federal investigation led to 25 indictments and changes at the jail, such as sensors installed to monitor inmates’ heartbeats and breathing.