While fighting COVID in Twin Towers, had only a single sheet and blanket during a very cold winter and while the jail's heating system was broken. Other inmates died of hypothermia.
Concussion.
Housed in unclean cells smeared with blood and feces.
Severe sleep deprivation.
Slept in urine-soaked bed after cup-fulls were thrown into his cell.
Likely pneumonia.
Diagnosed UTI.
Multiple bouts of suspected COVID or flu, plus numerous other suspected infections from seasonal and communal diseases.
Fungal skin infections.
Multiple diagnosed ear infections.
Broken toilet for eight days; had to defecate in tortilla bags and deal with stench.
Black mold exposure.
Multiple untreated joint injuries.
Constant hypothermia during winter months (Title 15 allows only two threadbare blankets, and since 2018 Ben has had thermoregulation problems).
Rats in cell (Ben reports having to kick them away from the door).
Ajax in eyes and airways while cleaning his cell.
Ongoing contact highs from nearby hard drug use.
Forced to stand and walk despite injury, weakness, and pain.
Contaminated drinking water when his sink was broken and he relied on water from other inmates.
Severe dehydration when sink was broken and he no longer trusted outside water.
Diagnosed lung infection (untreated for a month and a half).
Painkiller cancelled despite pleas (a very safe painkiller, not an opioid, and cancelled just two days after Ben casually told his doctor he could not live without it).
No sleep study despite possible sleep apnea.
Poor diet for three years (the standard jail diet isn't remotely healthy, nor is the supposedly low sodium diet Ben is on).
Unclean air from vents choked with rats, mold, dirt, and debris.
Drinking water tainted with corroded metal, mold, and occasional chemical infusions that make it undrinkable.
Due to sleep disorder, pain, and weakness, often cannot go to yard where he is kept in a cage without a chair and must stand or sit on asphalt ground that reeks of urine and sometimes shit. So he's only had prolonged direct sunlight a few times in the last two years.
Constant appointment cancellations or re-schedulings.
Inability to elevate head in bed with Title 15 provisions. No accommodation provided despite his documented neuro issues.
Deputies and nurses who do not understand his confusing illness, so they insult him, refuse to take his medical forms, avoid taking him to the clinic and to appointments, and resist sending him to the urgent care and the ER (even with verified blood pressure over 200, shortness of breath, and chest pain).
Delayed appointments (after Ben began pushing for one, it took the jail 1.5 years to schedule a single rheumatology appointment, the only one he's had).
Refused appointments with key specialists like orthopedist, pulmonologist, and pain management specialist.
Jail medical staff who do not remember what meds he's on, what conditions he has, and whether he's sick or not (COVID vaccine offered to him three days before he was in the ER with a lung infection he'd been reporting for a month and a half. Vaccination under these circumstances is not safe).
Missing pills at pill call.
Dirty pills at pill call (one pill had brown goop on it).
Staff who redo vitals until they get ones they like, then fail to report the bad vitals.
Three years of untreated illness in jail plus five before that for a total of eight years with severe multi-system disease.
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