La Plata County pays $5M after a jail inmate asked for a hospital and died of an ulcer
Daniel Foard, 32, died Aug. 16, 2023, in a La Plata County jail cell from a perforated ulcer, five days after he was booked. His estate's federal lawsuit, filed in 2025 against Sheriff Sean Smith, the county and the jail's medical contractor Southern Health Partners, alleges he spent more than 15 hours vomiting and in severe pain while deputies and medical staff did not take him to a hospital. Surveillance video showed him asking to go to the hospital; a deputy told him to "try to hit that drain." The autopsy attributed his death to ulcer complications, not fentanyl. In April 2026 the county agreed to pay $5 million, covered by its insurance, and the estate dismissed claims against Smith and the county. Claims against Southern Health Partners remain pending, and the company remains the jail's medical contractor.
The federal lawsuit, filed in 2025, alleges Foard endured more than 15 hours of severe abdominal pain and persistent vomiting while deputies and medical staff failed to provide adequate care or transport him to a hospital.
Claims that the agreement did not resolve against Tennessee-based Southern Health Partners (SHP), a private firm that still holds the contract to provide medical care at the Durango jail, are still pending.
Not yet contacted for this story.
Not yet contacted for this story.
Not yet contacted for this story.
No outcome recorded yet.