Florida Man Jailed Over Wi-Fi Dispute with Neighbor Dies After County Denies Heart Medication—Family Awarded $300K
A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit that accused a Florida sheriff’s office of negligence for ignoring a heart transplant patient’s requests for his anti-rejection medicine during a short stay in jail that could have saved his life.
The family of 54-year-old Dexter Barry was awarded $300,000 after challenging the neglectful actions of staff members at the Duval County Sheriff’s Office who oversaw Barry’s stay at the county jail in 2022, The Tributary reported.
Barry was arrested for simple assault on Nov. 18, 2022, for allegedly threatening his neighbor during a dispute over a Wi-Fi bill.
According to the family’s complaint, he informed the responding officer who took him into custody that he was a heart transplant patient who needed to take his anti-rejection pills multiple times a day, but the officer disregarded Barry’s pleas.
“I can’t miss those doses,” Barry told the officer.
The day after he was booked into jail, he made his first appearance in court where he recounted the same information to the presiding judge to no avail and was sent back to jail that night without his prescription medicine.
Records cited by The Tributary revealed that Armor Correctional Health Services, the jail’s medical provider, noted Barry’s need for his medication was “urgent,” but it never arrived at the facility during his stay.
The family’s lawsuit also asserted that prior to Barry’s death, Armor’s staffing levels were so low at the jail that they could not provide adequate medical care to inmates. At one point, the company’s former director had to recruit volunteers from the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department to assist the jail’s medical and nursing staff, the suit states.
Barry bonded out of jail on Nov. 20. That day, he immediately resumed his anti-rejection medication and sought medical help from the Mayo Clinic.
However, those days Barry was unable to take that life-sustaining medicine triggered an “irreversible process of heart rejection” that ultimately cost him his life, according to the complaint, and Barry succumbed to complete heart failure on Nov. 23.
The Duval County Medical Examiner’s Office did not conduct an autopsy on Barry’s body, prompting the family to hire a certified pathologist to perform a private autopsy that concluded that Barry died of cardiac arrest due to an autoimmune reaction and rejection of his transplanted heart.
Barry was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2008 and waited 12 years for a new heart. After receiving the transplant in Oct. 2020, he diligently followed his physicians’ instructions to take the anti-rejection medicine multiple times a day, the lawsuit stated.
His doctor performed a biopsy in April 2022 that revealed his transplanted heart was in “excellent condition” and that his body was responding well to his prescribed medications.
Bodycam footage of Barry’s ride to the jail in Nov. 2022 captured him talking about his $4 million surgery and making his initial requests for his anti-rejection medication.
