NBC affiliate KARE YouTube screengrab footage from a press conference held on Jan. 23, 2024, revealing surveillance footage that shows inmate Lucas Bellamy doubled over in pain and crawling on the floor as he suffered from a perforated bowel that went ignored by prison officials, according to a lawsuit filed by Bellamy’s family.
A man is dead in Minnesota after he was booked into jail and, according to a lawsuit from his family, had his pleas for help cruelly ignored as he suffered in agony from a perforated bowel so painful he was forced to crawl across the floor of his cell until he fatally collapsed.
Lucas Bellamy was 41 years old in July 2022 when police in Minnesota arrested him for fleeing them in a suspected stolen car. He also had brass knuckles on him. When he was booked into jail that summer, he also told jail officials upfront he had swallowed drugs in his possession right before he was arrested, according to a new lawsuit brought against Hennepin County by Bellamy’s family filed this week in federal court.
Bellamy’s family alleges he was then transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center for treatment but was shortly sent back to the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center where staff were given explicit instructions to monitor him for signs of stress.
Not only did they allegedly ignore him, but according to Lucas Bellamy’s sister, Sarah Bellamy, the footage from inside the jail shows nurses were “ambivalent” to his pain and mocked him.
“I can’t even call some of them nurses. Their behavior perverts their word. When they put their bodies and their judgment and their disdain between my brother and lifesaving care, they forfeited the right to that esteemed title,” Sarah Bellamy said at a press conference recorded by Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE.
The Bellamys say Lucas struggled with opioid addiction in recent years and had battled drug and alcohol abuse since he was a teenager. Through his ups and downs though, his family said he still managed to graduate college, get married and have a son. Sarah Bellamy told reporters her brother was “born into a deeply loving, extremely close-knit family” but his struggle with addiction could not be tamed after several attempts at rehab. His marriage eventually dissolved as well.
Then, she said, “The trajectory of his life got darker.”
“The entire time we did our best to keep him close to the light, to keep him fed and safe … none of us imagined his journey would end where it did, that he would die on the floor of a jail cell while those charged with his care would mock his pleas for help and be completely ambivalent to his pain,” Sarah Bellamy said, adding that her brother was “not how he died [and] he was not his addiction.”
The family’s attorney Jeff Storms wrote in a 43-page complaint obtained by Law&Crime that nurses expressed “deliberate indifference” to Lucas Bellamy as he was “complaining of stomach pain” and sat on the floor writhing and moaning when staff arrived.
In grim detail, the lawsuit claims that nurses “never conducted a physical examination of Lucas’ abdomen” despite his repeated pleas. The family also claimed nurses did not notate his condition in their records despite it being plainly obvious in video footage.
One nurse also allegedly ignored the previous instructions that should Bellamy’s condition appear to worsen, he be sent out for emergency care.
That never happened, the family claims.
“Plaintiff anticipates [defendant] will argue that it was not necessary to send Lucas to the hospital because she charted that Lucas’ vitals were within normal range. However, during the early presentation of a perforated bowel, a patient’s vital signs may be entirely normal. Overt abdominal pain is also not a typical symptom of opioid withdrawal. Therefore, when a patient has overt abdominal pain, the standard of care requires the provider to conduct a physical examination of the abdomen and consider other diagnoses, as the overt abdominal pain experienced by Lucas could be indicative of several life-threatening injuries and/or illnesses that must be investigated,” Storms wrote.
The nurses at Hennepin County Adult Detention Center didn’t even bother to check Bellamy’s temperature, the family says.
As his blood pressure soared, Bellamy couldn’t stand when ordered to and again, the lawsuit alleges, the nurse on duty failed to send the man to emergency care or ask for a special watch with additional checks.
Hours later, Bellamy allegedly begged another nurse to “help me, help me” as he lay in the fetal position of his cell. Crying, he begged the nurses on staff to send him to the emergency room.
“Once again, Lucas crawled out of his cell on his hands and knees,” the complaint states.
One nurse wrote in the chart that Lucas was “able to stand, walk outside his cell and sit still for vital signs” but his family claims this is a “gross mischaracterization of [his] physical abilities.”
As the hours passed, one nurse wrote in Lucas Bellamy’s chart that he had “started to whine” and suggested he was faking. He was given Maalox at one point as well, and footage shows Bellamy on his hands and knees struggling to drink it. It had spilled on the floor and was never cleaned up, either, the footage shows. He would eventually be found dead, face down on the floor of his cell.
Bellamy’s father, Louis Bellamy, who founded a theater in St. Paul Minnesota, told The Associated Press what he witnessed happened to his son was something he could not even imagine unfolding in a tragic play.
“[I] could not have built anything more callous, more disrespectful to … humanity, human existence than what I witnessed on that tape,” he said.
Storms says the family is calling on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to conduct an investigation. A representative for Ellison could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office reportedly refused to comment on the ongoing lawsuit but said “our deepest sympathies go out to the Bellamy family and to all those affected by Mr. Bellamy’s death. We remain committed to professionally serving all people in our facilities and under our care with compassion, dignity, and respect.”
Hennepin Healthcare also reportedly refused to comment on pending litigation but did say in a statement: “As a healthcare organization committed to serving our community, we join with others in sending our condolences to the family for the loss of their son,” the statement said.
Hennepin County representatives told Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO, “While we cannot comment on pending litigation our sympathy is with the Bellamy family.”
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