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From the Courts: Jail Nurse Faces Reinstated Civil Rights Claims Over Inmate’s Death  


Author:  Ken Kozlowski.


Source: Volume 21, Number 01, November/December 2019 , pp.3-7(5)




Correctional Health Care Report

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Abstract: 

Thomas Colardo was an inmate at the Rockdale County (Ga.) jail. About a week after his arrival on February 28, 2012, he began experiencing intermittent episodes of bleeding. On March 15, 2012, he went to the medical unit at the Rockdale County jail three times because of this bleeding. His first visit was at 9:24 a.m.; his last was just before 3:00 p.m. Colardo’s relatively light bleeding from open scabs and his nose would ordinarily be unremarkable, but he had idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (“ITP”), an autoimmune disease that prevents blood from clotting and can lead to fatal internal bleeding. He died in the early hours of March 16, having suffered internal bleeding in his brain. In Colardo-Keen v. Rockdale County, 775 Fed.Appx. 555 (11th Cir. May 24, 2019), a federal appeals court found that 1) a genuine issue of material fact as to when the nurses knew that Colardo had the autoimmune disease of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) precluded summary judgment; and 2) a genuine issue of material fact as to whether a nurse intentionally delayed for over five hours the medical treatment directed by her supervisor precluded summary judgment.

Keywords: Intake Screening; Colardo-Keen v. Rockdale County

Affiliations:  1: Ohio Supreme Court Library.

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