Family sues after Inmate who complained of pain died at SC federal prison camp
An inmate died at a federal prison camp in South Carolina less than three weeks into a nearly three year sentence. His family is now suing.
George Thacker, 59, was found dead in his dorm at the federal prison camp in Edgefield on Dec. 26, 2022, after complaining of stomach pain the day before. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by April Wesolowski, Thacker’s daughter, claims prison officials ignored Thacker’s complaints and failed to provide him with medical attention, a news release said. Wesolowski is being represented by Bakari Sellers and Mario Pacella of the Strom Law Firm.
The State has reached out to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for comment.
Thacker, who was convicted of wire fraud in a Tennessee federal court, began serving a 33 month sentence at the Edgefield prison camp on Dec. 9, 2022, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
From the day Thacker arrived at the prison camp, he was ill and experienced difficulty walking, according to the suit.
Thacker’s condition worsened leading up to Dec. 25, 2022, when he complained of abdominal pain to the facility’s medical personnel, the lawsuit said.
Rather than conducting a medical exam on Thacker or sending him to a hospital, medical officials at the prison camp gave him ibuprofen and returned him to his dorm, according to the lawsuit.
“If the prison officials had taken George Thacker’s pain seriously and provided him with proper medical care, this father of two and grandfather of three would be alive today,” Sellers said in the news release. “Instead, they ignored him and let him suffer and die alone.”
Thacker was found unresponsive in his dorm on Dec. 26, 2022. His cause of death was linked to a perforated duodenal ulcer and peptic ulcer disease, according to the lawsuit.
“George Thacker was sentenced to FPC-Edgefield. But it wasn’t a death sentence,” Pacella said in the release. “These prison officials chose to ignore Mr. Thacker. They chose to deny him the medical care he needed and their choices killed him.”
