Timothy Caramillo is suing Hampton Roads Regional Jail and the Norfolk City Jail over allegations that their negligence led to his daughter’s death in October 2018.
A lawsuit was filed by the father of Regina Marie Honeycutt, a now-deceased inmate who spent time at Hampton Roads Regional Jail and the Norfolk City Jail, over allegations that his daughter’s death would have been prevented if jail staff members wouldn’t have ignored her medical symptoms. According to the lawsuit, Honeycutt died last October after spending days complaining of “overwhelming stomach pain and bloody vomit to the correctional and medical staffs at Hampton Roads Regional Jail and the Norfolk City Jail.”
Eventually, Honeycutt became unresponsive and in respiratory arrest on October 6, and only then did jail staff take her from the Hampton Roads Regional Jail (HRRJ) to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center. According to the lawsuit, she had only recently been transferred from the Norfolk City Jail to the HRRJ days before her death. Once at the hospital, it became apparent that she was “too unstable to undergo a needed surgery and died at the hospital on Oct. 7 after going into septic shock due to a bowel perforation caused by colon cancer,” the suit claims.
It’s important to note that in the weeks and even days before her death, Honeycutt frequently complained of a variety of uncomfortable symptoms, including “intense stomach pain, constipation, and bloody vomit to the correctional and medical staffs at the Norfolk City Jail and the HRRJ.” Instead of having her checked out at a hospital, she was simply given “medication to treat constipation,” according to the suit. To make matters worse, a little over a week before her death, before she was transferred to HRRJ, “a medical professional noted that Honeycutt had abnormal vital signs, including a pulse of 157 beats-per-minute.” Despite the abnormal vital signs, “a nurse marked her issues as “not urgent” and told Honeycutt to drink more fluids and increase her activity level,” the suit states.
According to the suit, Honeycutt’s symptoms began in mid-September. Some inmates and other eyewitnesses even claimed she appeared to be losing weight. In addition, her skin allegedly began turning gray and she began throwing up bloody vomit.
When she first arrived at the HRRJ, she was assessed by a nurse and had “a racing heart rate, elevated blood pressure, nausea, and abdominal pain.” Despite that, she wasn’t sent to the hospital, “even though she had a tender and rigid abdomen,” the lawsuit claims. Instead, the doctor on staff conducted “x-rays and testing on Honeycutt at the jail, and sent her to general population even though the results of her tests were irregular, including blood appearing in her urine.” Honeycutt’s symptoms continued until HRRJ staff found her unresponsive on the evening of October 6, 2018.
An EMS report later revealed when they arrived they only found a nurse with Honeycutt, but “no medical professionals were intervening to treat her critical condition.” To make matters worse, the suit claims the nurse “wasn’t able to tell EMS how long Honeycutt had been unresponsive.”
Later on at the hospital, doctors discovered a sizeable “cancer mass on Honeycutt’s colon” and said the mass had “created a blockage, which led to the perforation of her bowel.” As a result, a larger amount of “fecal matter leaked into Honeycutt’s abdomen, which caused her to go into septic shock,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed by Timothy Caramillo and names “HRRJ Authority, HRRJ Superintendent David Hackworth, Norfolk Sheriff Joseph Baron, the jail’s medical provider Correct Care Solutions, LLC, and other individual medical professionals” as defendants. Caramillo claims his daughter wouldn’t have died if she had received proper medical treatment sooner.
Sources:
Lawsuit filed against HRRJ, Norfolk sheriff in inmate death
“H-E-L-P me please”: Family of inmate who died files lawsuit against Norfolk and regional jails
Join the conversation!