An inmate at the Racine County Jail was found dead Saturday, at 4:30 p.m.
Correctional staff responded to a report of a medical emergency in the jail's Huber dorm -- where inmates who are allowed out to work during the day -- and they found the inmate unresponsive, with no breathing or pulse. Jail staff began CPR and the inmate was taken to St. Mary's emergency room, where he was pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m.
The victim was identified as Todd Anderson, 43.
God does in fact work in mysterious ways.
ReplyDeleteExplanation please Pete. Your first sentence says an inmate was found dead at the jail at 4:30pm. You say he was then taken to the St. Mary's ER where he was pronounced dead at 11:03pm.
ReplyDeleteDid the CPR staff administered get a pulse or was the guy just dead for 5 1/2 hours before they could find someone to sign off on the diagnosis? Or was he really alive at 4:30?
Sincerely, your Jr. High journalism teacher.
Sorry Pete, I need a note from my Jr. High math teacher. 6 1/2 hrs., not 5 1/2 hrs.
ReplyDeleteThe difference though is that in real life I'm not an accountant. You, however, are a writer.
Dear High School Journalism teacher:
ReplyDeleteMy second sentence said, quoting from the police report: "...they found the inmate unresponsive, with no breathing or pulse."
That's my definition of death. It just took the hospital staff a little longer to come to the same conclusion. Draw your own conclusion as to whether he was really alive at 4:30. Clearly, hope springs eternal, and the responders tried to restore -- or find -- life.
Is this hair really worth splitting?
No Pete, that's just the problem when you post something without editing or a second opinion (just like my math problem with the hours).
ReplyDeleteOne might define my post as splitting hairs. One might as easily define your post as bad writing.
Pete is right - first responders can find someone and report them as being "dead", but they still need to be transported to the hospital so they can officially be proclaimed "dead". The recorded at the hospital is what goes on the death certificate.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem more rational to direct the criticism towards the jail employees rather than the report. I'd expect them to have called the EMTs, who would have called the coroner, all by 5:00. We don't know if he was found dead, as they claim!
ReplyDelete"RACINE - A Racine County Jail inmate died Saturday afternoon after unsuccessful efforts to revive him, the Racine County Sheriff's Department has reported.
ReplyDeleteIn a news release issued early Sunday morning, the department said officials responded at 4:30 p.m. Saturday to a medical emergency in the jail's Huber dormitory. Staff found Todd J. Anderson, 43, of Burlington unresponsive, not breathing and lacking a pulse.
Jail staff and medical personnel immediately began resuscitation efforts and summoned Racine paramedics, officials reported. They were able to re-establish a pulse for Anderson, who was serving time for nonpayment of child support.
He was taken to the emergency room at Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital, 3801 Spring St. Anderson was transferred to the intensive-care unit, but was pronounced dead by hospital staff at 11:08 p.m.
The department said the incident remained under investigation on Sunday, but no foul play is suspected. An autopsy is scheduled for today."
Pete, if you'd have just taken the care to include all the information from the above online report from the JT, you wouldn't have to be defending yourself today.
Sincerely, your Jr. High journalism teacher.
To clarify...You may find someone obviously cold stone dead and even tell someone about it at a specific documented time. Until the medical examiner or doctor declares them dead, they aren't legally dead. It doesn't make them anymore alive when the first person found them dead, but by law only specific professions can legally declare someone dead. The story is legally correct.
ReplyDeleteanon 8:16 - Are we in court, or are we just trying to make sense of what Pete wrote?
ReplyDeleteThis guy must have eaten the food.
ReplyDeleteJT reported the guy was in jail for lack of child support payments. I think the laws governing how to deal with parents who don't pay child support need to be reviewed. I don't believe incarceration is the right punishment for this issue.
ReplyDeleteThere sure have been alot of deaths in racine jail.Right now they have a million dollar law suit over a haert attack victim . That was giving meds hours after pronouned dead!
ReplyDeleteOur children are the future of our nation and should be supported by all of us through our government. Moralistic Victorian laws which incarcerate poor souls who can't make their child support payments should be scrapped. If we didn't lock up people for the "crime" of poverty, tragedies like Mr. Anderson's mysterious death in our jail could be avoided. Considering our cockeyed country's high incarceration rate, it shouldn't be touted as the "land of the free."
ReplyDeleteIf you have children you should be responsible for proving financial support for their well being. If not, throw their ass in jail.
ReplyDeleteIncarcerating so-called deadbeat dads costs more than supporting their kids through social programs. Besides, our priority ought to be caring for our children instead of jailing the less-fortunate members of our community. Hurling a poor guy in the slammer because he earns peanuts and can't keep up with his child support payments is sheer cruelty.
ReplyDelete8:04 - it is quite an assumption that the guy is earning peanuts. There are plenty of dead beat dads who can afford child support, but elect not to do so. These guys should be thrown into jail - they have a responsibility to their children.
ReplyDeleteYes, but we as a community have an obligation to care for our children. Ask any of the volunteers who work with our jail inmates--most prisoners, deadbeat dads included,--possess next to nothing. In our kleptoplutocratic system, paupers rather than private sector privateers rot in the pokey. If compassion doesn't move us to find alternatives to incarceration, the high cost of jailing delinquent dads and other impecunious offenders guilty of non-violent transgressions should make us change our ways a.s.a.p.
ReplyDelete10:25 - Don't worry your pal Doyle will let them all out of jail.
ReplyDeleteProvided that they're non-violent offenders, releasing them is fine with me. And, by the way, where did you get the idea that Doyle was my friend? Any governor who lets billionaire bullies dodge property taxes on pricey structures by Frank Lloyd Wright or Foster and Partners is no pal of mine.
ReplyDeleteAnyone is compasionate for dead beat dad's must like Doyle.
ReplyDeleteHow many people have died in the Kenosha County jail over the past 5 years? How about Brown County? Dane County?
ReplyDelete7:56 - who really cares?
ReplyDeleteAll of us should care. Although we may not be thrilled with their misconduct, jail inmates are our brothers and sisters.
ReplyDelete2:41 - Maybe they are your bother's and sister's but they are not mine.
ReplyDeleteWe're all children of God so let's be kind to ourbrothers and sisters everywhere.
ReplyDelete5:52 - you can have them.
ReplyDeleteI have them and so do you. We are all children of the same Father in Heaven.
ReplyDeleteI sit in that racine jail. I have a crazy sent that alllows me to leave week days and be at home. That jail needs some serious help. Before more people end up passing away. The guards are always to busy. it takes days sometimes to even get one to your cell for a question :( And now with this new flu thats out, They give you no soap no nothin for about 4 to 5 days he holding cells are never cleaned. So my question now is, How many will die from the new flu in the racine county jail???? With all the germs and they give you no soap?????????
ReplyDelete