Inset: Melissa de la Cruz (Saxet Funeral Home/Facebook). Background: The Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center in Edinburg, Texas (Google Maps).
A county jail in Texas dumped a female inmate at a hospital after ignoring pain she said she had for three days — telling her daughter, “I had to f—ing throw myself on the floor so they could f—ing come get me” — before her eventual death for acute sepsis and organ failure, her family says in a lawsuit.
Melissa de la Cruz, 45, was not even transported to the hospital in an ambulance, according to her family, who is suing for “mental anguish” caused by what their loved one allegedly went through in April 2023. Family members say that instead of providing treatment for de la Cruz’s “serious pain” from health problems that would soon result in her death, medical personnel at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center “jokingly blamed Melissa’s issues on allegedly eating Hot Cheetos, Takis, and pickles,” according to the family’s complaint.
“Melissa had been found on the floor, apparently cursing and yelling due to the extreme pain level,” the document says.
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The Hidalgo County jail allegedly cut corners when it came to helping de la Cruz in an attempt to “save money,” the woman’s family says. They would allegedly do this by “failing or refusing to transport detainees who vitally needed emergency medical care to a hospital,” including de la Cruz, the complaint says.
“Instead of calling an ambulance, which would have medical personnel who could assist, it appears that the sheriff’s department chose to drive Melissa to the hospital in an apparent county vehicle,” her family alleges. “This was a misguided attempt to save money.”
According to the complaint, jail staff did not provide sufficient care for de la Cruz as there was only a medical doctor on hand to see inmates for just “six hours each week.”
“The County was deliberately indifferent regarding policies, practices, and customs developed or used related to issues addressed,” the complaint says.
De la Cruz was locked up at the Hidalgo County Jail for a month after being arrested in March 2023 on a failure to appear warrant for a felony drug possession charge. Starting April 10 of that year, Melissa’s family says she began experiencing “strong chest pains, and her legs were hurting.” She allegedly reached out to her family and told “one or more jailers, and one or more jailers contacted the medical department,” according to the complaint.
“No one would answer at the jail’s medical department,” the family alleges. “Melissa’s daughter indicated that she would call the jail about Melissa’s serious pain. On April 11, 2023, Melissa said during a phone call, ‘I still feel like s—, but my body hurts.’ Her pain from a life-threatening illness continued.”
De la Cruz made numerous phone calls to her daughter and said she was feeling “like s—” and that the jail wasn’t helping.
“I haven’t been able to keep nothing down. I’m throwing everything up,” de la Cruz told her daughter, Ashlee Gonzalez, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of de la Cruz’s three children.
During an April 12, 2023, phone call, Melissa told Gonzalez, “I was f—ing sick all night. I had to f—ing throw myself on the floor so they could f—ing come get me.” She described experiencing “ugly pain … like bad” and said “it f—ing hurts” in areas near the middle of her stomach, and around to her back.
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On April 13, 2023, de la Cruz began experiencing severe abdominal pain, low blood pressure and an elevated heart rate. “This was likely due to serious infection raging in her body, untreated for several painful days,” her family’s complaint says. The jail transported de la Cruz in a county vehicle to a hospital that was 13 miles away that day, according to her family. She ended up dying there on April 22 after becoming septic and experiencing organ failure.
Gonzalez is suing Hidalgo County for “all damages and remedies available to her as a wrongful death beneficiary and/or heir.” Attempts by Law&Crime to reach Hidalgo County for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.
