At the time of her arrest on April 5, 2019, Barlow-Austin was living with HIV and getting treatment for substance addiction, according to the family’s lawsuit. She also had been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, according to the suit.
After Barlow-Austin was arrested for a probation violation, she was taken to the Bi-State jail to await trial.
When she had her first medical screening, she was “able-bodied, hydrated and well nourished,” the lawsuit said. But that changed quickly, it added.
The lawsuit alleged that, despite knowing she was taking medications for HIV and her mental health, jail staffers denied and delayed giving her the prescriptions her husband had brought to the facility after her arrest.
During visits, Barlow-Austin’s husband noticed that her health was deteriorating, according to the lawsuit.
On May 15, 2019, Barlow-Austin told her husband that she had a bad headache and leg pain, the lawsuit said. She had made workers at the jail aware of the problems, but they responded by telling her she “was just stressed out and had a ‘tension headache,’” according to the complaint.
When her husband tried to talk with the staff about her health, “they refused to discuss the situation with him,” the lawsuit said.
As weeks passed, Barlow-Austin sought help for nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, numbness in her limbs and a persistent headache, among other symptoms, according to the lawsuit. She was put in a medical observation cell but did not get proper attention, the lawsuit states.
By June 10, 2019, Barlow-Austin was “so fatigued and weak that she can barely crawl,” court documents state. Citing footage from the cell during her last two days at the Bi-State jail, the lawsuit said that at times, she was lying down “moaning in apparent agony” while holding an empty water cup.
That evening, her “serious medical needs remained on full display,” but staffers at the Bi-State jail were “indifferent to them,” according to the lawsuit.
She was taken to a hospital the next day, and she died on June 17 after she became septic and developed an infection because of her other health problems, the lawsuit said.
Source: Family gets largest known jail-death settlement in Texas: ‘We wanted justice’ (msn.com)
Funeral for Justice 