Remanded to prison; dead of diabetes
Diabetes is one of the fastest growing medical problems in Belize…and the disease doesn’t go away just because you happen to be a guest in Her Majesty’s prison. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
On Thursday, twenty-two year old Gian Godoy was remanded to Hattieville prison after he failed to make bail on a charge of possession for half and ounce of weed. Godoy was scheduled to reappear in court on August second, but after only a day and a half behind bars, he was found unconscious inside his cell. Godoy, who was a diabetic, apparently went into a coma and died around 11:30 on Saturday afternoon. Family and friends believe Godoy’s health deteriorated after authorities failed to give him the insulin he needed to treat his condition. Beverly Myers, a close friend, said Godoy should have been taken to a hospital.
Beverly Myers, Friend
“If the authorities know that Gian was a sick man and so sick because as I told you the police came and ask me, the police call me and ask me to send someone to bail him. I send the young man, they still did not give him no bail.”
Myers says she was unable to make the bail money of fifteen hundred dollars and Godoy went to prison. According to Superintendent of Prisons, Errol Gentle, after Godoy arrived at Hattieville he told them that he had diabetes and needed his medication. On Friday morning, prison records show that Godoy received twenty units of insulin. However, Gentle believes the problem started when Godoy refused to eat his food after he was given his injection.
Errol Gentle, Superintendent of Prisons
“He was suppose to have been given a second shot on Saturday morning, twenty-four hours after. The medical orderly came in on Saturday morning, he wasn’t working, but he came in just to do that and he couldn’t do it because the guy was not eating. So they prepared a special meal for him and they gave him and were suppose to have come back around midday to give him his second shot. About 11:00, the remand officer checked on him and he was okay. By 11:30, I received a call that this guy was not moving. And when we came over, well we realise that he was stiff, like he succumbed to his illness.”
Gentle says a further check of the cell reveal that Godoy never did eat his meal, instead he hid the food under his bed. A post-mortem scheduled for Tuesday will determine what led to Godoy’s death, but it’s strongly suspected that the young man may have had a seizure and then collapsed into a coma.
Beverly Myers
“Sometimes when he does not have any food to eat, he get a seizure and they have to take him to the hospital and you know he gets his treatment and he come out. Sometimes he come and ask me for food, I have to give him because he’s sick.”
Errol Gentle
“All I know that he was suppose to take his insulin, suppose eat and we provided that for him. But I don’t know what his stage on admission, how far the illness was, I really don’t know.”
It is not certain why Godoy refused to eat the, but it appears that his decision was a fatal one. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
It was the first time that Gian Godoy was remanded to Hattieville prison.
