Suit: Jail, medical staff indifference led to woman’s death

CHARLESTON – The mother of a Harrison County woman who died after collapsing at North Central Regional Jail claims corrections officials and the jail’s medical provider showed “deliberate indifference” to her daughter’s obvious medical needs, allowing her to deteriorate for hours before seeking emergency care.

Diana Jill McClung, as administratrix of the estate of Marissa Dyan Crim, filed her complaint July 29 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Wexford Health Sources. Wexford provides inmate medical care at WVDCR facilities, including North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County.

Crim, 31, died August 4, 2024, at WVU Medicine United Hospital Center in Bridgeport, a day after she was found unresponsive in a holding area at the jail. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled her death was caused by acute methamphetamine intoxication with acute bronchopneumonia as a significant contributing condition and classified the manner of death as an accident.

“The allegations in this complaint describe a series of missed opportunities to recognize a medical emergency, provide basic medical care, and save a young woman’s life,” said L. Dante diTrapano, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff. “Marissa Crim entered the regional jail alive, and her family deserves answers about why those opportunities were repeatedly missed.

“Every person taken into government custody has the right to receive appropriate medical care and should be treated with dignity. This civil justice action seeks to uncover the truth about what happened to Marissa and to ensure that the circumstances surrounding her death are fully examined in a court of law.”

According to the lawsuit, Crim was stopped by the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department around 5 a.m. on August 3, 2024, for an improper turn and expired registration. She was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving revoked for DUI second offense. The criminal complaint made no mention of her being intoxicated or under the influence, the filing states. She was transported to North Central Regional Jail and taken into custody around 6 a.m.

The complaint says jail staff began the intake and booking process, but there is no documentation Crim received an intake body scan. From about 6:50 a.m. until roughly 3:30 p.m. – more than eight hours – there is no recorded medical evaluation, monitoring report or assessment of Crim while she was in the jail, according to her medical chart.

At approximately 3:30 p.m., Wexford employee Savannah Owens documented that she was unable to medically screen Crim, that Crim could not provide a urine sample for drug screening or a pregnancy test and that Crim exhibited erratic speech and behavior, was unable to answer medical questions and reported she was “high on ice,” according to the complaint and attached medical records.

Despite this information, the complaint says Owens did not obtain vital signs, perform further medical or neurologic assessment, notify a physician, nursing supervisor or higher level of care or implement any plan to monitor or promptly reassess Crim. Instead, screening was deferred. But no reassessment ever occurred, the suit says.

Jail staff then placed Crim alone in a small holding cell for more than an hour, according to the filing. During that time, jail and Wexford employees did not visit, observe or monitor her, the complaint alleges.

Wexford medical notes reflect that at about 4:52 p.m., roughly 82 minutes later, a nurse was called to the booking area and found Crim lying in a holding or scan-room area, moaning with her eyes rolled back in her head, sluggish pupils and only slight responsiveness to painful stimuli. Medical and security staff including nurses Lee Ann Chacon, Cheyenne Davis, Christina McLaughlin and Garytt Swiger responded. Crim was moved to the floor for further evaluation.

Between 5:02 p.m. and 5:21 p.m., staff administered five doses of Narcan (Naloxone), four nasally and one intramuscularly, while her oxygen saturation initially was recorded at 59 percent with a pulse of 67, according to the medical chart and an injury report.

Supplemental oxygen and a nasal airway were applied as her oxygen saturation later rose into the 80s, according to the complaint. Despite the repeated doses of the opioid antagonist and her earlier report of using methamphetamine, Crim never regained responsiveness to verbal stimuli.

The lawsuit notes that about 20 minutes elapsed between the discovery of her unresponsive, hypoxic state at 4:52 p.m. and the activation of emergency medical services at 5:12 p.m. Emergency medical personnel arrived at 5:24 p.m. and left the facility with Crim at 5:43 p.m.

Crim reached the emergency department at WVU Medicine United Hospital Center around 6:18 p.m. with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3 and in “severe metabolic collapse.” That’s 86 minutes after she was first found unresponsive in WVDCR custody, the complaint notes.

Hospital records described her as unresponsive to voice, touch or pain, with dilated, fixed pupils and spontaneous respirations of 18 to 20 breaths per minute. She was intubated to protect her airway and later underwent multiple rounds of synchronized cardioversion for a narrow-complex tachycardia, along with treatment using vasopressors such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, phenylephrine and vasopressin.

Crim was hyperthermic, with a rectal temperature of 103.3 degrees, and was placed on an Arctic Sun cooling system, according to the filing. Laboratory studies showed leukocytosis, acute kidney injury, elevated lactic acid, hypernatremia, elevated troponin, hypoglycemia and findings consistent with rhabdomyolysis and combined respiratory and metabolic acidosis.

Imaging revealed bilateral pneumonia. A urine drug screen was positive for amphetamines, buprenorphine and fentanyl. She was admitted to the intensive care unit in critical condition with diagnoses including sepsis, acute hypoxic respiratory failure, suspected anoxic brain injury, upper gastrointestinal bleed, non-ST elevation myocardial infarction, rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury.

Despite “maximal vasopressor and ventilatory support,” Crim’s condition continued to deteriorate overnight, with no response to stimuli off sedation and fixed, dilated pupils, the complaint states.

McClung alleges WVDCR maintained its custodial hold over her throughout the night while she lay dying in the ICU, and that hospital personnel were unable to reach a supervisor at the jail to release her from custody so family could be at her bedside. Crim was not released from custody until about 8:20 a.m. August 4, 2024, after hospital staff contacted a CORE nurse to facilitate her release, according to the filing.

Only after that release was McClung contacted and allowed to come to her daughter’s bedside, along with other relatives. By then, Crim’s treating physician had explained the grave and irreversible nature of her neurologic injury, including her lack of response to stimuli and fixed pupils, the complaint states.

In accordance with the family’s wishes, she was given morphine and Ativan and extubated to comfort care. Crim was pronounced dead at 11:02 a.m. August 4, 2024, with family present.

“Marissa Crim exhibited obvious signs of a serious medical emergency, yet she was allegedly denied the basic medical care that her condition required, including timely evaluation, monitoring, and treatment,” said Jesse Forbes, another attorney representing the estate. “She was only 31 years old and should have had most of her life ahead of her. Instead, her family is left seeking justice and accountability for a death that should never have occurred.”

“When the government takes custody of an individual, it assumes a legal responsibility to protect that person’s health and safety. This civil justice action seeks to ensure those obligations are enforced so that other families aren't forced to suffer the devastating loss that Marissa’s family has endured.”

McClung alleges WVDCR failed to protect Crim from personal abuse, injury and death by isolating her in a small holding cell for more than an hour without observation or supervision despite her behavior and her statement about being “high on ice.”

The complaint says the agency failed to conduct detox or safety checks, failed to ensure Crim received appropriate medical assessment and care, and failed to implement emergency procedures and first aid when required. She also accuses WVDCR of deliberate indifference.

McClung accuses Wexford of medical professional negligence and deliberate indifference. She claims the pattern of care “reflected more than simple oversight” and was consistent with deliberate indifference to a serious medical need.

The complaint notes that emergency medicine physician Aaron A. Wohl reviewed law-enforcement, jail, medical, EMS, autopsy, toxicology and death certificate records and concluded Wexford deviated from accepted standards of care in multiple respects and that timely recognition, monitoring and intervention would have given Crim a “meaningful opportunity for survival.”

McClung seeks compensatory damages for Crim’s pain, suffering and death, along with damages for her own loss and other relief to be determined at trial. She also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs and other relief.

She is being represented by Forbes, Jennifer N. Taylor and Michael D. Heidenreich of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston and by diTrapano, Amanda J. Davis and Charles F. Bellomy of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Dave Hardy.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 26-C-904