Parents of diabetic blame Ramsey County jailers for son's death
(AP)- When Randy Gallemeyer's mother heard her son had been arrested for riding a bicycle while drunk, she said she knew she had to make sure he got his insulin while he was held in the Ramsey County Jail.
Nora Gallmeyer said she explained to officers over the phone that it was critical that he treat his diabetes. She said she hand-delivered the medical supplies he needed to the county jail.
Randy, 46, was arrested on Friday, Oct. 19. On the following Sunday morning, jailers found him dying in his cell. Doctors at Regions Hospital pronounced him dead on Oct. 22. The medical examiner ruled he died of natural causes.
Nora Gallmeyer and her husband, Bernie, blamed the jailers for their son's death. They said they were told by an attending physician at Regions Hospital that their son was brain-dead upon arrival, with blood-glucose levels at a lethal high.
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Even more upsetting, the couple said that in their son's hospital room they found the unopened packages of insulin, other medication and syringes that Nora said she dropped off at the jail the day Randy was arrested.
"There is no excuse for them not giving him the medical treatment," she said.
The Gallmeyers have hired a lawyer and are considering a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and its sheriff's office.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said a jail nurse treated Gallmeyer the day after he was arrested. He said details on whether the medical personnel were given Gallmeyer's medicine by jailers were part of an internal investigation.
The nurses work until 10 p.m., he said.
Joe Prietos, an agent for Goldberg Bonding in Minneapolis, said Nora Gallmeyer had called him Friday night to post bail. Prietos said the jail told him her son was on a 48-hour hold, with no bail set, because he had not been charged.
Prietos said Nora told him her son needed insulin and she was going to his home to get it. The next day, she told him she had brought the medicine to the jail and spoken to a supervisor about 11:30 p.m.
Regions Hospital would not confirm details of Gallmeyer's case due to privacy laws. However, a doctor's note given to the parents said Gallmeyer's glucose levels had reached 1,200, about 10 times the normal level, when he was brought in.
"That's outrageous, that level," said Bernie Gallmeyer. "The doctor told us up there that if he did get any insulin, it wasn't sufficient."
A glucose meter Nora Gallmeyer had dropped off at the jail showed that the last time her son had checked his levels was 3:14 p.m. Oct. 19, when they were slightly high, his parents said.