MUSKOGEE — The son of a McCurtain County Jail inmate who died while incarcerated sued the jail trust, a nurse and two trust employees in his mother’s death.
Tulsan Marcus Edd accuses the jail trust, nurse Kerra Bailey and jail employees Madison Christopher and Tara Hallford, of “non-existent or inadequate medical and mental health care” in the December 2020 death of Travienna Lashun Edd, 49, of Idabel.
Ms. Edd was booked into the McCurtain County Jail on Jan. 17, 2020, in connection with a murder.
At that time Travienna Edd reported suffering from lung and bone cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, was taking several medications, and was using a portable oxygen machine “to help her breathe,” Marcus Edd wrote in his lawsuit petition.
She also informed Bailey she harbored suicidal feelings, and the nurse later confirmed that.
During his time in jail Ms. Edd “had regular appointments” with her primary care provider and with mental health professionals at Carl Albert Community Mental Health Center at Heavener.
Her health “began to significantly and obviously decline” in November 2020, the lawsuit claims.
Nevertheless, the jail staff and its medical staff “began to discontinue several of Ms. Edd’s prescribed medications … contributing to her worsening symptoms,” Marcus Edd alleges.
Ms. Edd was transported by ambulance to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel the night of Nov. 17, 2020, “on the suspicion that she had suffered a stroke.” She was stabilized at the hospital and was returned to the jail the next day.
Nov. 18, 2020, “was the last day” that his mother “was either sent to an outside medical facility or assessor treated by a physician,” Marcus Edd alleges in his lawsuit.
Instead, for 19 days jail staff and its medical staff “left Ms. Edd to languish alone in her cell, with her condition obviously and dangerously deteriorating.” Mr. Edd “was not medically monitored or assessed” during those 19 days, he alleges.
The jail staff, including Hallford and Christopher, “failed to properly monitor Ms. Edd while she was in the isolation cell on Dec. 6-7, 2020,” even though “they knew her condition was dire,” the lawsuit charges.
About 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, Hallford found Ms. Edd “unresponsive in her isolation cell,” the lawsuit reports. Emergency medical service was summoned to the jail but Ms. Edd “was already deceased.”
Marcus Edd claims that “for years” the jail has “maintained … a woefully inadequate medical delivery system.” The jail trust has not employed a physician, physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner, and instead “relies on a single licensed practical nurse to care for inmates at the Jail, with no supervision from more highly trained medical professionals.”
Furthermore, the jail trust “has failed to provide any kind of medical training to Jail staff,” instead telling them to rely on “common sense” when handling the medical needs and treatment of inmates.
Marcus Edd is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 against the defendants he sued in Muskogee’s Eastern District federal court.
Travienna Edd was charged in McCurtain County District Court on Jan. 24, 2020, with second-degree murder, accused of participating in a man’s death in October 2018. She was convicted and sentencing was set for Dec. 7, 2020, but the case was dismissed because of her death. Her accomplice was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.