Maurice Small complaint alleges CorrectHealth Chatham failed to treat elevated blood pressure before detention death
The complaint alleges that CorrectHealth Chatham, LLC and individual correctional-health providers failed to provide adequate medical and mental-health care to Maurice Small at the Chatham County Detention Center between April 20 and April 29, 2023. Providers documented repeated elevated blood-pressure readings, placed Small on suicide watch after an emergent mental-health referral, failed to adequately assess or treat his medical and mental-health condition, failed to evaluate reported stomach pain, and failed to respond when video allegedly showed him collapsing in his cell before he was found unresponsive the next morning.
Overview
This page concerns a public complaint alleging that CorrectHealth Chatham and individual correctional-health providers failed to assess and treat Maurice Small’s elevated blood pressure, mental-health crisis, and acute medical deterioration while he was detained at the Chatham County Detention Center.
Chronology
The complaint alleges as follows:
- Maurice Small was booked into the Chatham County Detention Center on April 20, 2023, and an intake documented elevated blood pressure.
- On April 21, 2023, staff documented elevated blood pressure, prior psychiatric hospitalization, antipsychotic medication use, and an emergent mental-health referral related to suicide-watch status.
- On April 22, 2023, a medical assistant recorded blood pressure of 168/108 and a mental-health provider assessed Small as agitated and cognitively impaired.
- Vital signs were not recorded on multiple later days and records attributing the absence to refusal lacked signed refusal forms.
- On April 28, 2023, Small reported stomach pain and later appeared on video collapsing and writhing in his cell, but no medical or jail staff entered the cell to respond.
- Small was found unresponsive on April 29, 2023, transported to Memorial Hospital, and pronounced dead, with an autopsy report cited by the complaint indicating hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
Alleged failures
The complaint alleges the following failures:
- The defendants failed to properly assess Small’s mental-health symptoms during detention.
- The defendants failed to refer Small for neurological evaluation related to his mental-health crisis.
- The defendants failed to treat repeatedly documented elevated blood pressure.
- The defendants failed to evaluate Small’s April 28 stomach-pain complaint.
- The defendants failed to respond promptly when Small allegedly collapsed in his cell and showed signs of acute distress.