Lawsuit Filed After Teen Dies in Georgia Jail Because Officials Thought He Was Faking Symptoms
In a heartbreaking story, 17 year old Georgia teen Fabian Avery III died after officials in a local jail ignored his deteriorating health. The 
teen was in solitary confinement in a Pelham, Georgia jail when he began complaining of symptoms that should have prompted medical attention. Instead, his symptoms were largely ignored, and now Avery’s mother is suing the the city and its police department.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
Fabian Avery III weighed 153 pounds when he was transferred from the Fulton County jail in late February 2011 to alleviate overcrowding. The 17-year-old was found dead nearly a month later in an isolation cell at the Mize Street Municipal jail in the south Georgia town of Pelham, his 6-foot-1-inch frame shriveled to 108 pounds, according to reports…
Avery died of appendicitis and complications from a bowel obstruction, according to investigative documents compiled by the GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation]. ….
The complaint claims that Avery first reported being ill on Feb. 24, 2011 and was given minimal attention. While he complained of nausea, stomach pains, vomiting and lower back pains, as well as frequently vomiting and defecating on himself, the lawsuit claims jail staff did little to help get Avery the necessary care…
Avery had complained of defecating on himself, nausea, and stomach pains, but was only given minimal care. He was found dead on a mattress on the floor on the morning of March 18.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the GBI’s investigation found that the teen had been placed in a hole after he began defecating on himself. The jail’s nurse reportedly “suggested that Avery might have been faking some of his symptoms,” despite the fact that he was rapidly losing weight.
The attorney for the city describes the situation as “unfortunate”.
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Here we go again Black People Stay your a*s Out of these Places! These Devils Hate our Gutts why you wanna go Visit these Demons? Unless you go the other way lol or just ignorant?
You hit the nail on the head. Our young people especially needs to get their acts together and stay out of trouble that will eventually land them in jail. Like you said they are really demons ready to attack. It’s sad another young life is wasted.
I hate the Police they are no friends to our people so what do you expect from them? But evil look at they History? Now you got it how long did that take?
Sounds like something that would Happen in MLKings Day no Doubt d**n Devils!
How unfortunate will it be when they sue the s**t out you!!!!!
This is absolutely crazy! I hope this mother sues any and everyone individually and as a part of this system. How could they not know this boy was sick when he is losing weigh like that?
I hope this is a lesson to ALL African American teens and young adult; do what you are supposed to do, get an education, get a legal job and work your way into success. The jail system is not where you will find any kind of care or love.
Every Nurse and Doctor should also have their licenses revoked permanently!!!!!!!
Start a petition and I will sighn it.
St
Just said it too. Even the “so called nurse” must go. I don’t know what she meant by ‘faking’. How many more should die before some change is made?
This might not be a case of whites against blacks, yet that’s the first thing my mind went to. Were any blacks working in the jail who could see about this son? Did no family members try to see about him? Incredible *smh*
No visitors in the hole.
AT A COMPLETE LOSS FOR WORDS….
This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard..everyone who knew or was aware of the situation shoulders have criminal charges bought up on them as well as having their medical licenses revoked..
So sad… As was said earlier once your in the system your are literally at the mercy of the court and the evidence show the justice system has no mercy
And anyone at anytime can be jailed. So many people are wrongly jailed so for those that keep say stay out of jail there are those that are there but do not belong.
Unfortunate, really? That is the best they can muster? The nurse should be relieved of her post. She should have referred the young man to a hospital as she was clearly over her head. She should be sued for incompetence. There were enough signs there. Such a waste, he did not deserve to lose his life for over crowding. So sad. Mom you go get ‘em!
I hope that his mother sues the pants off the police department. I am in nursing and those symptoms should not have been ignored. The stupid a*s nurse needs to be fired and sued as well. I almost willing to bet that she was white. Even if she thought he was faking…it wasn’t her place to determine that….he should have been taken to the hospital for testing and had an examination by a doctor. She didn’t have the power to diagnose any d**n thing because she is not a MD.
Apparently the nursing staff is incompetent. She needs to fired.
WHEN are People of COLOR in America gonna WAKE The h**l UP and REALIZE that Jim Crow’s “grand-son” James S. Crowe, Esq. is ALIVE and Well.
Crowe, doesn’t wear a “white sheet over his head.”
Actually he wears a $1200 Versace designer suit to Work. WHERE does he work, you may ask ?
He’s on The Bench, on the boards of county councils, city commissioners, elections, chamber of commerce, higher institutions, boards of regents, regional transportation, city planning committees, and everywhere where key DECISIONS are being made.
He’s even been known to occupy the governor’s chair of a state.
Crowe often is the SHERIFF in small towns and large counties. He’s the WARDEN of a Prison, most the time.
MY point is this:
The best way to stay OUT of The MEAT-grinder of Justice is to be engaged in doing something POSITIVE with your life.
If you KNOW the “wolves” are in a certain place, DON’T GO into their “territory, if you can at all help it.
Hope our young people ae reading these postings. Thank you for the heads up.
That was a good post. This young man died of a ruptured appendix abcess formation and a resultant bowel obstruction. A two minute exam and simple blood test would have helped determine that something was seriously wrong before this man died. People die of appendicitis in third world countries.
When you are in the custody of the state they have a responsibility to ensure your safety.
They saw this young man as a stupid ni$$er.
What concerns me is that innocent people find themselves incarcerated.
The mother will probably get money but it will not bring her dead son back.
Georgia is a very difficult state to live in,nothing in this state makes much sense to anyone. It operates like an Apartheid Institutional System,with very unfair low wages,outrageous part-time working labor jobs,under[30] hrs.per wk. and every two wks. pay system…Also, the Judicial System is Extremely Unfair,Unjust and Downright Criminal. They send Young Men and Women to Prison for Simple Misdemeanor Offenses…Many Young Lives have been Ruined in Georgia…People have a saying about Georgia.”Come On Vacation Leave On Probation.” The crime rate is Very High,due to Poverty,Low Wages,Unfair Judicia System,Mental Illness,Poor Schools and Fraud is Rampant…Georgia needs help.
Thank you Ana! some on here act as if the don’t understand the forces that are working to our demise
HOW STUPID CAN BLACK PEOPLE BE…it is a fact THAT THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US…WHEN WILL WE WAKE UP, REALIZE THAT, AND BEGAN TO IDENTIFY AND PROTECT OURSELVES FROM A NATURAL ENEMY
The nurse should be fired and criminal charges filed against her for negligent homicide. She is a nurse and not a Doctor.
The article does not state what he was arrested and jailed for in the first place. We can blame the legal system and the justice system, but had he not been in jail, he might still be alive. We have to do better. Prayers go out to his family.
This is so sad … I am in tears for this lost generation… I hope that they wake up soon…this society does not care for them and never will !!! Education is the key to climbing out of poverty….SMH …
This is one of the worst things I have heard in a long time. I hope everyone involved goes down for this. The kid is sick and defecating on himself and they put him in solitary because he’s defecating on himself? How screwed up is that. This poor baby died because these people just didn’t give a s**t. He must have been so frightened. OMG This makes me sick. It’s criminal.
@Riles – even though he was in jail, he is not at fault in this. We don’t even know if he was guilty of what the charges against him alleged. And it is the fault of the people at the jail. This behavior is unconscionable.
We don’t really know if this was a racial issue, do we? I think it is a mistake to automatically assume this was about whites hating blacks.
I do agree, though, that Jim Crow is still alive and kicking in some situations. The new voter ID laws are nothing more than a poll tax.
whether ANC led South Africa or the good ol’ usa, Black life is cheap. the answer is the same everywhere, African people must first realize the situation we’re in everywhere in the world including in Africa, then we must organize ourselves as the Panthers used to say “for self-defense”. Self-defense not only against the devil but against those among us who have bought into white supremacy and capitalist greed(hello mr. president!) When we begin to value ourselves as a people and begin to take the necessary steps to make ourselves strong we’ll be on our way,in the meantime even other Black people have no respect for us because we’ve all been inculcated into self-hatred by white supremacy. Yes, the Georgian authorities must be sued to the max but we’ve got to know that that is not enough. Again as the Panthers used to say, “Arm yourself or Harm yourself!”
Give me a reason why?
This young man was defecating on himself, vomiting, complaining of lower back pain, stomach cramps, nausea and rapidly losing weight; but the prison staff thought he was FAKING so they locked him up in solitary confinement to “teach him a lesson?” OMG! WTF? Who the h**l is gonna purposely defecate on themselves? Surely, the prison staff heard and saw him frequently vomit. If not, surely they smelled it and witnessed the agonizing pain this brother was in due to his stomach cramps and lower back pain. Didn’t they notice his rapid weight loss? That can’t be missed! So, give me a d**n break! Any adult with an iota of common sense would instinctively know that these symptoms warrant IMMEDIATE medical attention. I hope everyone involved gets fired and unlicensed. I hope the mother of this young man successfully sues everyone involved in her son’s murder. Then for the state (or whoever said it) to say that the incident was “unfortunate” is despicable.
I am a nurse & I spent time shadowing a correctional nurse during school. They have the attitude that they are all faking when they come to sick call. They look at them all as criminals who deserve to suffer. When I was giving care to this seemingly very plesant man the nurse told me she let me do it because he was an alleged baby rapist. Are you kidding me? I told her that I didnt need to know that because I dont care. I mean…ahe us a nurse in a jail…everybody there has done something. As a nurse you are to first do no harm. You also cant force treatment or denyi. Although she worked for the jail she failed as a nurse & she should lose her license because the signs were there. As nurses we cant make medical diagnoses but we can make nursing diagnoses. We are taught that pain is subjective & you treat a person as such. She ignored all of the warning sign of appendecitis & dehydration. Some of the first things you learn in school. I pray that the mother gets a good lawyer to sue for this & dont settle…..push for the verdict. They will offer money & talk about tort reform. Yes you may get millions to settle but it will be swept under the rug & restricted from public. If you get the verdict then you get to make them answer for what they did. They dint mind giving money but they dont want the conviction. Same for the nurse….fight for malpractice so she cant practice nursing again.
Prisons, the new plantations.
I pray for his family unfortunate loss at the hands of people who took an oath to care for the sick. It is sad when people pass judgement of other people which cost this young man his life.
Where were the parents before this child got in trouble? African-Americans need to do better by their kids, what a loss.
I remember my dad telling young males in my family to stay in school and out of jail. Where are the parents today and what are you teaching your young males?
The soil of Georgia is soaked in the blood of black people. Yet, the outrage seems to stay within many. There must be some form of aggressive and prolong protest to bring awareness and real change. Singing songs and a march or two led by a preacher will no longer do. Besides the white supremacy structure expects that form of counter action and ignores it, most of the time. Remember Troy Davis ?
Aggressive organizations must be put in place with the intention of sending a message that violence against minorities will no longer be tolerated by the police, laws that put minorities at a disadvantage for political purposes and profit must end, and politicians with agendas that cater to Jim Crowist should be held accountable and put on blast at every moment… no rest for the wicked.
Ignorant, racist, unprofessional, degenerates and I hope the lawsuit is successful and they lose their jobs.
We should all PRAY for Fabian’s soul. Pray too that the lawsuit is against the NURSE and other staff officials. Had not the nurse said anything, the staff would have probably got medical assistance for Fabian. There should be 2 lawsuits; the nurse and the state. Her child or relative will need help one day soon.
GOD don’t like ugly……
If you’ve ever had an apendicitis or bowel obstruction attack, you would know that this child really had to suffer great pain. These facilities and theiir treatment are not different that the plantations
their ancestor had to endure.
If you’ve ever had an apendicitis or a bowel obstruction attack, you would know that this child really had to suffer great pain. These facilities and their treatment are no different then that of the plantations their ancestor had to endure.
The nurse in this situation should lose her LICENSE !
Ignorance,Mental Illiness, Poverty, Corruption,Unjust Criminal Justice Jim Crow System,and Fraud…A Snapshot of Georgia…Help should be on the way.
My prayers are with this family. I have a son who will be 21 this year, and I an constantly reminding him that there are Consequences and Advantages to every decision you make in life.I tell him how people will mistake you or judge you based on facts unseen or unheard of. What I want to really say is young adults have the opportunities that our ancestors did not have, which allows us to do things that were at one time forbidden. Pleaseetry to live life to the fullest, The Dept. of Corrections does not care about you as a person, so with that being said try to do the right thing always…..your living depends upon it. And Please Please Avoid jail at all costs.
The reality is that you’re not going to be able to regulate the behavior of this white system. We can only regulate our own behavior and this is what we should concentrate on. When you go into snake country you stand a very good chance of being bitten by snakes so common sense stay out of snake country in other word stay out of trouble. This kid was probably in jail for committing a crime against one of his own, in his own community. When you’re doing street crime you’re in snake country ands you will be bitten by the snake. If you don’t want to go to jail stay out of the street and stop doing crime. I don’t know why Black folks think they can make a moral appeal to an amoral system. The system doesn’t give a d**n about how and why you’re committing crimes. It doesn’t care about your background. You can’t regulate the behavior of the snake you can only regulate your own behavior by staying out of trouble.
I am a nurse and a mother. My son is a drug user and I have other grown children who are definitely not going in that direction. I have been in counseling because I feel guilt and fear and overall lack of control to fix him or the life he has chosen. That is the key work, Chosen. No matter what positive offer I make, he prefers his own community of drug users and whatever. But, there has to be magic button that I have not found that would change his attitude. The 17 year old young man could be green or orange. He deserved attention and proper and prompt care for this obvious medical emergency. He looked handsome and young in the picture. My heart goes out to his family. There is always hope that he would have turned his life around. If only the holier than thou jail crew intended to help instead of punish. Being there is punishment alone. Next, being treated kindly could only help and teach a better way. Everyone has worth . I will never believe a person is a lost cause. I just wish we could love each other as we would want to be loved. If we acted on this idea, this would never have happened. That nurse is a fool and the jail should be closed.