She died by suicide in Wilkinson County Jail. Her family is now suing
The parents of a Wilkinson County Jail detainee filed a lawsuit last week against an infirmary and two employees for allegedly not providing enough care for their daughter’s drug withdrawal symptoms, according to court records.
The alleged lack of care led to the detainee dying by suicide, the lawsuit says.
Matt Maloney and Ann Maloney, the parents of Diana Maloney, filed the lawsuit on Oct. 3 against Southern Health Partners, the company that runs the infirmary at the jail, and two of its employees, Betty Evans and James Graham, after they allegedly did not provide the proper medication to treat Diana Maloney’s fentanyl addiction and subsequent withdrawals while at the jail early last year, according to the lawsuit.
The defendants are accused of violating professional negligence claims. Evans is also accused of depriving Diana Maloney’s life, which violates the 14th Amendment.
The lawsuit claims Evans was “acting with deliberate indifference and engaging in objectively unreasonable conduct in the treatment and management of Diana's opioid use disorder and withdrawal,” Darl H. Champion Jr. and Debra Gomez, attorneys for the Maloneys, said in the lawsuit.
Representatives of Southern Health Partners have not responded to The Telegraph's request for comment about the allegations.
The lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument. As of Monday morning, Southern Health Partners, Evans and Graham had not filed a legal response.
Detained for 7 days before she died
Diana Maloney was taken to the Wilkinson County Jail on Jan. 30, 2024, on various drug charges. She was then evaluated by Evans a couple of days later, when Diana Maloney told the nurse that she was withdrawing from drugs and had a years-long history of using fentanyl, according to the lawsuit.
She was twitching, sweating and experiencing stomach cramps due to the withdrawal, according to the lawsuit.
Graham ordered Maloney to take Librium for withdrawals, Phenergan for nausea, ibuprofen for fever, Bentyl for stomach cramps and loperamide for diarrhea, according to the lawsuit. She was also ordered to be under observation.
Librium is prescribed for alcohol withdrawal, not opioid withdrawal. And, despite the prescriptions being written the same day of Diana Maloney’s evaluation, she wasn’t given the medication, according to the lawsuit.
The only time she was given medication was on the morning of Feb. 4, 2024, when she was given Librium, Phenergan and ibuprofen, but not Bentyl or loperamide, the lawsuit said.
That same afternoon, Emergency Medical Services was called to evaluate Diana Maloney for chest pain and spitting up blood. Her blood pressure and heart rate were also high. EMS noted in its records that she appeared to be suffering from drug withdrawal, according to the lawsuit.
Evans later documented in Diana Maloney’s records that no alcohol or drug withdrawal had been done by staff, the lawsuit said.
Despite being ordered to be under observation, the last time staff checked in on Diana Maloney was on Feb. 4, 2024, at 11 p.m., according to the lawsuit.
Diana Maloney died by suicide on Feb. 5, 2024, at approximately 4:15 p.m.
“Diana’s death was a direct and proximate result of the inadequate and improper medical care she received for her opioid withdrawal, which created severe psychological distress and substantially increased her risk of suicide,” Champion and Gomez said in the lawsuit.
