This is a photo of Lyvita Gomes. She was arrested in 2011 for not appearing for jury duty and then resisting arrest. She spent 15 days in Lake County Jail (Illinois), not eating and not drinking.
Correct Care Solutions psychiatrist Hargarmukh Singh diagnosed her as psychotic and incompetent, and internist Rozel Elazegui ignored multiple signs of dehydration, but they did nothing.
Another physician finally sent her to hospital on day 15, in multiple organ failure and severely dehydrated, at death’s door.
She died a few days later, after the jail doctors allowed her to deteriorate such that she didn’t have a fighting chance. The coroner determined that she died from complications of starvation and dehydration.
On October 10, 2019, People’s Law Office attorneys Janine Hoft, Jan Susler, John Stainthorp and Christian Snow obtained a verdict in federal court, when a jury found that the internist and psychiatrist failed to provide her with adequate medical care and failed to protect her, and awarded her estate $2,761,410.
This tragic case is part of our office’s continued commitment to fight for the rights of people in prisons, jails and detention.
