Breaking News: ACLU Names New Defendants in Suit Over Death of Detainee

Breaking News: ACLU Names New Defendants in Suit Over Death of Detainee

The Rhode Island ACLU has named eight more defendants, including Memorial Hospital, in its suit over the death of Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng, a detainee at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls.

Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese immigrant, died August 2008 after complaining for months about being in excruciating pain. The ACLU said guards and medical staff at Wyatt had accused him of faking his pain and denied him medical care. He was later diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and a broken spine less than a week before his death, according to the ACLU.

Besides Memorial Hospital the other newly named defendants are an emergency room doctor, three correctional officers, a medical officer at Wyatt, and two nurses—all of whom are accused of failing to provide Ng care.

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“The addition of more Wyatt staff as defendants demonstrates just how widespread the misbehavior at the facility was,” said Robert McConnell, an attorney at Motley Rice LLC who handled the case for the ACLU. “Jason’s treatment cannot be attributed to merely a rogue officer or two.”

On July 26, Ng had been taken to Memorial Hospital for an X-ray and an MRI, but a doctor said the MRI could not be done because it was a Saturday and Ng was discharged, according to the ACLU.

McConnell said it was “incomprehensible, given Jason’s condition at the time, how Memorial Hospital could have sent him back to Wyatt without keeping him, caring for him, and properly diagnosing him.”