TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Feb 1, 2021

Richard Willingham died last year after being in the Shelby County jail for two weeks. A new federal lawsuit by his family alleges that he was deprived of medical care for his acute pulmonary embolism. The Daily Memphian reports that new inmates are routinely placed in medical isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic but that move meant that Willingham was not examined by a nurse at the jail. He finally was taken to a hospital where he died. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, names Shelby County, Wellpath LLC and three health care workers as defendants.