AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – An Augusta mom is useless and the I-TEAM is uncovering she didn’t need to die. However, as an alternative of getting medical assist for Ashley Asuncion, data present jail workers accused of her of faking her signs.
Asuncion’s household got here ahead to the I-TEAM whereas we have been investigating a younger father’s murder within the Richmond County Jail.
After almost six months of combing via data and interviews in each case information, and analyzing different lawsuits, we’ve uncovered what might be an rising sample of medical missteps by the folks paid thousands and thousands of your tax {dollars} to take care of inmates.
On any given day, the Charles B. Webster Detention Middle homes round 1,000 inmates. Greater than half are there for non-violent offenses.
And since that is the county jail, most haven’t been to trial but and are presumed harmless. So meaning they haven’t had the possibility to defend themselves but.
However we discovered some should struggle one other battle: the one to get medical consideration.
We first uncovered this in Lendon Stephens’ case file when deputies accused him of faking a seizure.
We discovered warning indicators of a head damage all all through Stephens’ case file, but he was labeled a psychological affected person regardless of having no psychological well being points in his historical past or jail file. The younger father died alone in his cell of a mind hemorrhage.
Now in an all new I-TEAM investigation, we’re piecing collectively a unique case – the one among a mom additionally accused of faking an sickness.
But once more, it seems the jail medical workers was useless improper.
Ashley Ascunion’s household thought time in jail would assist, not damage
If the best issues are recollections, Ashley Asuncion left her 4 sons a very good provide of pleased ones.
“She was an incredible mother,” stated Bryson, 15. Fifth-grader Kayden stated: “She’d give her coronary heart to us.” And Blake, 17, stated: “I used to be actually near my momma.”
Ashton, 8, is her youngest.
“Breaks my coronary heart,” Bryson stated. They’re harmless younger lives, but they’re nonetheless sentenced to life with out their mom. “She was solely in there a few weeks,” stated her mom, Terrie Lamb. “That’s it. A few weeks.”
She was arrested in Augusta 2020 after deputies discovered her in a “suspicious automobile” in a motel parking zone throughout a “routine patrol,” based on an incident report.
Physique-cam footage captured the arrest.
“She’s had that meth sitting in her purse a short while,” it recorded a deputy saying. What occurred subsequent can really feel all too acquainted to anybody who loves somebody fighting habit.
“I didn’t have something, did I?” she stated. “Please inform them I didn’t have something!” She was booked into jail charged with possession of methamphetamine and drug-related objects.
It was her second arrest, and her household hoped jail can be a wake-up name.
“We thought she was safer in there that she was being out and we not understanding the place she was,” Bryson stated. That’s why her mother and father, Terrie and Les Lamb, determined to go away her there till the medication have been out of her system.
Different inmates on the time informed Georgia Bureau of Investigation brokers it was apparent when that occurred.
“She began, like getting her shade again, gaining weight,” stated Angel Hewitt.
“Attending to be a contented particular person once more.” Her mother and pa have been busy watching the calendar. “We counted the times, and we knew! The day she known as and talked to my spouse, we knew she was clear,” her dad stated.
Terrie Lamb stated: “She stated, ‘Mother, Dad, I’m prepared. I would like my boys. I’m prepared to return dwelling. No matter I’ve to do, I’ll do it.” As quickly because the decide signed the papers, Ashley might go away for rehab.
As an alternative, she left in an ambulance for College Hospital. Her father answered the telephone.
What occurred to Ashley Asuncion?
The physician defined she had peritonitis, or irritation of the stomach, normally resulting from a bacterial or fungal an infection.
“He stated, ‘She’s not doing actually good,’ ” Les Lamb stated.
“He stated, normally, if caught within the early levels, he stated, we are able to simply do antibiotics, and he stated, with antibiotics, in just a few days it clears up, and the particular person is okay,” he stated. In some circumstances, a affected person will want surgical procedure however left untreated, it could result in extreme, doubtlessly life-threatening an infection all through the physique, based on the Mayo Clinic.
When Ashley arrived on the hospital, data present it was already too late.
The I-TEAM tracks Wellpath’s historical past of shortcomings
What in regards to the medical care she acquired on the jail earlier than deputies known as an ambulance? Wellpath is a non-public firm that handles well being care at greater than 500 correctional services together with Richmond County’s jail. It was named Right Care Options.
The I-TEAM has tracked points with the medical supplier for years.
In 2019, Right Care settled a federal lawsuit for an “undisclosed quantity” after the demise of one other mom at our county jail.
The GBI says 50-year-old Debra Leverett died of peritonitis – the identical factor that will later declare Ashley Asuncion’s life.
The similarities don’t cease there.
” ‘Daddy, I’m telling you in the event that they don’t let me out of right here, I’m going to die,’ ” Les Lamb stated his daughter informed him. “She stated, ‘I’ve GOT to get some assist.’ “
Based on the federal lawsuit, Leverett additionally informed her mom, “I’ll die if I don’t get out of right here.”
She was later discovered lifeless in her cell.
What the data present in Ashley’s demise investigation
Inmates not removed from Ashley’s cell informed GBI brokers what they overheard. “She was hollering. She was throwing up, and he or she had diarrhea,” Karmen Beasley stated. “He’s like, ‘Effectively, there’s nothing improper with you.’ “
Angel Hewitt stated: “She would scream continually. They usually simply stored saying, ‘Ain’t nothing improper along with her.’ “
Deputies made a notice of their exercise log about “Ashley being sick and never wanting very effectively.”
Deputy Charlene stated: “Ashley’s like saying she’s in ache, we name the nurse. The nurse stated they’ll’t do something. We talked to Sergeant Roberts, we logged it.”
Others informed the GBI why nurses have been refusing to assist. Deputy McBride stated: “The nursing workers stated that she was pretending as a result of she needed extra detox remedy.”
The most important discrepancy, the I-TEAM discovered, is a substance proven in photographs.
Deputy Santiago stated: “She simply stored spitting up this brown stuff or darkish, darkish brown stuff.”
Sgt Kramer stated: “They stated you have been eaten consuming a brownie and Kool Help and, and appearing such as you have been throwing it up. And he or she stored insisting that she was in ache and that she was not doing that.”
She wasn’t faking. She was dying, and not one of the 14 medical workers members who got here in touch along with her in her last days obtained her the assistance she wanted till it was too late.
The I-TEAM discovered the mom of 4 cried out in ache for days whereas lots of those that ought to have helped her repeatedly accused her of faking. By the point the ambulance arrived, and he or she was loaded on the stretcher, she was virtually gone. Ashley Asuncion died just a few hours later.
Toxicology studies present she had no medication or alcohol in her system.
Ashley’s household left to battle grief
Les Lamb: “If it occurred one time, I’d possibly perceive it, however we don’t perceive the way it simply retains taking place in the identical place.”
Meredith Anderson stated: “Consider how many individuals are in that jail proper now.”
Terrie Lamb stated: “I do know.”
Les Lamb stated: “Yep.”
Terrie Lamb: “They usually have households at dwelling. That pray. They usually cry. That their baby will come dwelling.”
As for Ashley’s kids, Blake, her oldest, graduates from highschool this spring.
“I need to present different households which can be going via the identical factor, that don’t sit right here and, you understand, be quiet,” he stated. “Discuss issues and don’t let your feelings cover within you.”
Each he and his brother Bryson already know the ache of dropping a mum or dad.
Their father died in a police chase in 2011.
Now their mother is gone, too.
Bryson: “You’ve simply obtained to be robust. You bought to imagine in God as a result of God will show you how to via something.”
It’s a religion they cling to simply as tightly as they now maintain their recollections of their mom.
We reached out to Wellpath final week and heard again from the corporate’s vp of company communications on Wednesday. She stated she would attempt to get again with us by Friday.
Right here it’s Monday, and we nonetheless haven’t heard something.
We additionally reached out to Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree. He says he can not remark due to pending litigation.
Ashley’s mother and father have filed a lawsuit, and naturally the I-TEAM can be watching.
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