Inmate dies after surgery;
ECU's Dr. Chitwood weighs in
By MIKE GOODWIN and ANNE MILLER, Union-Times of Albany, NY
Thursday, August 4, 2005
SCHENECTADY -- A Schenectady County jail inmate awaiting sentencing for killing her boyfriend died Wednesday, less than 24 hours after being released from Ellis Hospital where she had undergone heart surgery.
Laura Woolsey, 39, was pronounced dead shortly after 11 a.m. by doctors at Ellis Hospital -- the same hospital where surgeons replaced one of her heart valves four days earlier on July 28.
She died three hours after complaining of chest pains to a jail nurse. Rather than send Woolsey back to the hospital, the nurse -- an employee of Schenectady Family Health Services, the firm that treats county prisoners -- gave her pain medication at about 8 a.m., Sheriff Harry Buffardi said.
The jail has no infirmary. Woolsey remained in her cell without constant medical attention.
Buffardi said the nurse returned to the cell at 9 a.m. to examine Woolsey and believed she was improving. Correction officers "continually" checked on Woolsey, he said.
"The officers told me she appeared to be sleeping peacefully," Buffardi said. Asked if the officers might have mistaken sleep for dying, the sheriff said, "Could be. That would be consistent with what happened."
By 10:25 a.m., guards discovered Woolsey was having difficulty breathing and summoned medical help. She was dead less than an hour later.
Woolsey's attorney, Mark Sacco, and her family said they had begged the hospital not to release Woolsey so soon after major surgery.
"Dying in jail -- that was her biggest concern," said Woolsey's uncle, Michael Maher of Mechanicville.
The state Commission of Correction launched an investigation of Woolsey's death Wednesday afternoon.
It's at least the third time in recent years that a prisoner's treatment at the jail has drawn scrutiny. Last year, the state faulted the jail and its former provider Prison Health Services for their treatment of Brian Tetrault, 44, who died in custody on Nov. 2, 2001, after PHS stopped providing him with medication needed to control Parkinson's disease.
A U.S. District Court jury last month awarded former prisoner Byron Lake $782,988 after finding PHS, and Schenectady and Schoharie counties liable for not properly treating a heart attack that went undiagnosed for several days in August 1998.
Schenectady Family Health took over the jail's medical operation last year when the county ended its relationship with PHS. John Silva, the organization's president and CEO, did not return a call left at his office.
Ellis Hospital has an average record of survival after heart valve surgeries, according to data from the state Department of Health. The hospital did 350 of the procedures between 2000 and 2002, the most recent years for which data is available.
Twenty of the patients died while they were patients at Ellis, a mortality rate that is squarely at the state average.
Citing patient confidentially rules, Ellis spokeswoman Donna Evans declined to discuss Woolsey's treatment or allegations of poor care leveled by her attorney and family.
"In general terms, we follow set protocols that our patients must be in order to be discharged," Evans said.
Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, the chief of cardio-thoracic surgery at East Carolina University, said an otherwise healthy person Woolsey's age would probably spend four to five days at the hospital after surgery. Patients who die after valve surgery often experience blood clots or arrhythmia, an interruption of the heartbeat. In rare cases, they can die from the opening of sutures, he said.
An autopsy on Woolsey was performed Wednesday afternoon. According to jail officials, she died from complications of her heart disease, though an official cause was not immediately available.
On July 21, 2004, police were called to 307 Front St. twice. The first time, Woolsey said her boyfriend, James P. Flomer, 45, had boxed her ear, which was red, District Attorney Robert Carney said. The second time, neighbors called police after Woolsey ran screaming through the apartment building that she had killed Flomer, who police found bleeding on the apartment floor. He had been stabbed once with a kitchen knife that punctured his lung.
The apartment was decorated with the couple's love notes and slogans from Alcoholics Anonymous, Carney said.
Flomer's blood-alcohol level that night was .23, Carney said. Woolsey also appeared drunk, although police didn't test her blood level. Woolsey was charged with one count each of first- and second-degree murder.
Her trial was scheduled to begin this coming Monday. Instead, she pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on July 22. There was some confusion that day, because she had a pre-operation doctor's appointment, but her case was a last-second addition to the court calendar that afternoon.
She agreed to a 6-year prison term and was to be sentenced Sept. 23.
The sentencing deal was on the low side for the felony, but represented a compromise to her family and her health, the district attorney's office said.
"As far as her long-term survivability, we knew she had very grave health concerns, and we know it was possible she would not survive even the 6-year term," said Phil Mueller, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case.
At first, Woolsey had made her $20,000 bail. She returned to jail in early October, her lawyer said, after she was accused of talking to a witness. A grand jury did not indict her on any witness tampering counts, but her bail was raised to $40,000 after she was indicted for manslaughter, Sacco said.
Woolsey failed to make the higher bail, and had remained in jail since January, Sacco said.
The inmate suffered from other medical conditions in addition to mental health problems. She repeatedly called her sister Amy Callahan, saying the nurses refused to give her prescribed medication. Callahan, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, said she would then call the jail to demand better care for her sister.
The last relative Woolsey probably saw was Maher, who was at the hospital on Sunday. She was "coherent but weak," he said. She urged him to convince her doctors to keep her in the hospital.
"I know I won't have the care there," Maher said she told him, referring to the jail. "They cut her chest open, cracked her ribs," a distraught Maher kept repeating on the phone Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier this week he tried to reach her again at the hospital and the jail, but both agencies told him she wasn't there.
"Her family is not going to let this go quietly," Callahan said. Goodwin can be reached at 454-5465 or mgoodwin@timesunion.com. Anne Miller can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at amiller@timesunion.com.
