A 56-year-old Haitian man being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Arizona died from complications from an untreated tooth infection, a medical examiner’s report released earlier this month found.
Emmanuel Damas died on March 2 after being transferred to a local hospital from the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center, a private correctional complex that houses ICE detainees. A report by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, obtained through a public records request, concluded that Damas “died as a result of Complications of Necrotizing Mediastinitis with Neck and Retropharyngeal Abscess in the setting of Severe Dental Caries and Periodontal Disease.”
Mediastinitis is a life-threatening chest infection. A retropharyngeal abscess is a large, life-threatening collection of pus at the back of the throat, also resulting from a severe infection.
The autopsy results, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, come as deaths in ICE custody have reached an all-time high and allegations of abuse and neglect continue to pour out of federal detention centers.
For example, after Geraldo Lunas Campos, a detainee at the Camp East Montana detention facility in Texas, died on Jan. 3, ICE initially claimed that he committed suicide, but the El Paso Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation. Multiple detainee witnesses told news outlets that guards choked Lunas Campos to death after he refused to stop asking for his medication.
Reason also previously reported on the case of Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian national who died last April of a heart attack at a private detention facility in Broward County, Florida. Blaise’s son told a county investigator that his mother said in a phone call with him on the day she died that staff refused to let her see a physician for chest pains. Detainees who witnessed Blaise collapse told human rights groups there was also a slow staff response, and guards initially ignored them when they yelled for help.
Damas was transferred to ICE custody last September after being arrested and charged in Buffalo, New York, with assault and battery, according to an ICE report on his death. The report says Damas “received regular medical and dental evaluations” and that he declined recommendations for tooth extractions.
On Feb. 19, Damas was transferred to a hospital where he was diagnosed with acute respiratory failure due to septic shock. He remained ventilated and on life support until he died on March 2.
However, Arizona Family reported that Damas’ brother, Presley Nelson, said Damas told medical staff at the detention center that he had a toothache in mid-February, but he was not sent to a dentist. The outlet wrote that Nelson “believes the staff at the facility did not take his brother’s complaints seriously, even though it was a treatable condition.”
In response to the medical examiner’s findings, Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D–Ariz.) said in a press release that “a toothache should never escalate into a fatal medical emergency, especially while someone is in government custody and entirely dependent on detention staff for access to care.”
In March, Grijalva and two other Arizona Democrats demanded an investigation into Damas’ death and the release of his full medical records. Grijalva said that her office has yet to receive the “full records, transparency, or accountability that his family deserves.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
