7th Inmate Death at Jail Ward This Year : Prisoner Dies at Hospital After Seizure

A 60-year-old Orange County Jail inmate being held on drug charges died after suffering a seizure Thursday morning at UCI Medical Center, officials said.

The man’s name was not being released until family members could be notified, but he was identified as a transient from Santa Ana by Lt. Richard Olson of the Sheriff’s Department.

The man had turned himself into the jail on Dec. 17 on warrants charging possession of a hypodermic syringe and drug paraphernalia, and failure to appear in court, Olson said.

The man became ill Wednesday afternoon, Olson said, and was transferred to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana by the jail’s medical staff.

“When he got there, he initially refused treatment,” Olson said. “But he was then stabilized and taken to the jail ward at UCIMC” in Orange.

The man died at 5:40 a.m. Thursday morning.

The district attorney’s office is investigating the case, which is the usual procedure in all inmate deaths. An autopsy was being conducted to determine cause of death.

This is the seventh inmate death at the UCI Medical Center jail ward this year, Olson said. The inmates had been housed in the main jail in Santa Ana and the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange before they became ill and were transferred to the hospital jail ward, he said.

Medical care in the County Jail came under attack last year after three inmates died in the medical ward.

Last week, the families of two inmates who died in the jail in 1987 received a $450,000 court settlement. The families of John Franklin Wilcox, 71, and Arthur Oviedo, 25, had filed suit in January, 1987, charging that the county was to blame for incorrectly diagnosing the medical conditions of both inmates as well as placing them in the same cell with Jerry Thomas Pick, who has been charged with their murders. However, county officials have not admitted any liability in the deaths as part of the settlement.

The most recent death occurred Nov. 19 when a female inmate died of undetermined causes. Geraldine Rodriguez, 37, of Irvine had been arrested on a warrant charging possession of drug paraphernalia and was transferred to Western Medical Center after she became ill.