Teaira Shorter was only 19 years old when a family friend dropped her off at the local jail so that she could turn herself in.
She was determined to clear arrest warrants connected to her failure to pay about $1,500 in fines from minor offenses during her high school years. Unable to afford the amount needed to clear the warrants, Shorter resigned herself to serving around two weeks in jail.
The warrants, Shorter said in an interview with CNN, had been keeping her from getting a job, so she viewed the brief jail stint — at the City of Las Vegas Detention Center — as a way to move forward and start her life as an adult.
Instead, nine days after entering the jail in May of 2014, medical records and other documents show she left in an ambulance with a life-threatening infection that would haunt her with complications and medical bills for years to come.
Teaira Shorter said she was healthy and loved playing basketball before she ended up in jail. After her multiple surgeries, it took months for her to be able to play again.
Today, she still wonders why no one at the jail helped her get to the hospital sooner. And she blames the giant government contractor that had been entrusted with her medical care, a company called Correct Care Solutions, now Wellpath. A CNN investigation found that this company has been responsible for deaths and other serious medical outcomes that could have been prevented.
The company defended its overall work in interviews with CNN, saying it provided quality health care to a very needy and vulnerable population and that all medical providers experience some bad outcomes. It declined to comment on Shorters case, though the company has denied wrongdoing in court filings.
“I think I asked to go to the hospital, no exaggeration, 100 times,” Shorter said.
Shorters time in jail was a result of several decisions she made her senior year of high school, shortly after the death of her mother. Even before that, Shorter had felt like she was on her own — bouncing around the foster system and relying on her friends and their parents to take care of her. At age 18, a fight broke out at a playground near her school, and Shorter said she showed up to see what was going on even though police were trying to clear out the area. She was arrested and charged with obstruction and unlawful assembly, according to police records.
A few months later, police records show she was riding in a friends car when police pulled them over and gave her a ticket for not wearing her seatbelt. When she didnt pay the fines from either of these offenses, she said she later learned that warrants for her arrest were issued.
Before turning herself in at the City of Las Vegas Detention Center, Shorter remembers eating her aunt's home cooking, then asking to stop at McDonald's along the way for a Quarter Pounder with cheese.
Shorter adds up the tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills from her hospital stay and surgeries.
On Shorters right arm is a Tupac Shakur poem about a rose that grew from concrete. On her hand is a dove with her mom's birth and death dates.
She arrived at the jail on a Monday in May, and remembers the officers being surprised that she was choosing to turn herself in. The intake area smelled like urine, she said. She could hear people yelling and banging on doors.
Shorter said she was then brought to a cell, where she spent her time reading a book. It wasnt too long before she started to feel nauseous and then began vomiting uncontrollably. Unable to hold down any food or water, medical records show the vomiting went on for days and that she complained of stomach pain, but she was treated with anti-nausea medications and electrolyte drinks.
Shorter sits on a playground across from her old high school, near where fights used to occur after school.
She said she begged for additional medical attention over and over again. At one point she told jail officials: “I cant breathe. I need to go to the hospital,” according to an incident report. Shorter is adamant her pleas were ignored and the severity of her symptoms were dismissed by the medical staff. In the end, records show it took around a week for her to be sent to the emergency room, where doctors discovered her appendix had ruptured and filled her abdomen with a dangerous infection.Read More – Source
Teaira Shorter was only 19 years old when a family friend dropped her off at the local jail so that she could turn herself in.
She was determined to clear arrest warrants connected to her failure to pay about $1,500 in fines from minor offenses during her high school years. Unable to afford the amount needed to clear the warrants, Shorter resigned herself to serving around two weeks in jail.
The warrants, Shorter said in an interview with CNN, had been keeping her from getting a job, so she viewed the brief jail stint — at the City of Las Vegas Detention Center — as a way to move forward and start her life as an adult.
Instead, nine days after entering the jail in May of 2014, medical records and other documents show she left in an ambulance with a life-threatening infection that would haunt her with complications and medical bills for years to come.
Teaira Shorter said she was healthy and loved playing basketball before she ended up in jail. After her multiple surgeries, it took months for her to be able to play again.
Today, she still wonders why no one at the jail helped her get to the hospital sooner. And she blames the giant government contractor that had been entrusted with her medical care, a company called Correct Care Solutions, now Wellpath. A CNN investigation found that this company has been responsible for deaths and other serious medical outcomes that could have been prevented.
The company defended its overall work in interviews with CNN, saying it provided quality health care to a very needy and vulnerable population and that all medical providers experience some bad outcomes. It declined to comment on Shorters case, though the company has denied wrongdoing in court filings.
“I think I asked to go to the hospital, no exaggeration, 100 times,” Shorter said.
Shorters time in jail was a result of several decisions she made her senior year of high school, shortly after the death of her mother. Even before that, Shorter had felt like she was on her own — bouncing around the foster system and relying on her friends and their parents to take care of her. At age 18, a fight broke out at a playground near her school, and Shorter said she showed up to see what was going on even though police were trying to clear out the area. She was arrested and charged with obstruction and unlawful assembly, according to police records.
A few months later, police records show she was riding in a friends car when police pulled them over and gave her a ticket for not wearing her seatbelt. When she didnt pay the fines from either of these offenses, she said she later learned that warrants for her arrest were issued.
Before turning herself in at the City of Las Vegas Detention Center, Shorter remembers eating her aunt's home cooking, then asking to stop at McDonald's along the way for a Quarter Pounder with cheese.
Shorter adds up the tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills from her hospital stay and surgeries.
On Shorters right arm is a Tupac Shakur poem about a rose that grew from concrete. On her hand is a dove with her mom's birth and death dates.
She arrived at the jail on a Monday in May, and remembers the officers being surprised that she was choosing to turn herself in. The intake area smelled like urine, she said. She could hear people yelling and banging on doors.
Shorter said she was then brought to a cell, where she spent her time reading a book. It wasnt too long before she started to feel nauseous and then began vomiting uncontrollably. Unable to hold down any food or water, medical records show the vomiting went on for days and that she complained of stomach pain, but she was treated with anti-nausea medications and electrolyte drinks.
Shorter sits on a playground across from her old high school, near where fights used to occur after school.
She said she begged for additional medical attention over and over again. At one point she told jail officials: “I cant breathe. I need to go to the hospital,” according to an incident report. Shorter is adamant her pleas were ignored and the severity of her symptoms were dismissed by the medical staff. In the end, records show it took around a week for her to be sent to the emergency room, where doctors discovered her appendix had ruptured and filled her abdomen with a dangerous infection.Read More – Source
