By: Mark J. Konkol, Staff Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times: March 21st, 2005
Cook County on Thursday paid $1.35 million to the only son of a 37-year-old South Side woman who died from internal bleeding while she was being held in a Cook County Jail cell in August 2000, according to the attorney representing the woman’s estate.
Marilyn Bones was arrested on drug charges Aug. 14, 2000, and placed in a cell two days later when she couldn’t come up with $500 bail.
Bones immediately complained of severe stomach pains and diarrhea. She died from internal bleeding caused by a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
She was pronounced dead at Cermak Hospital on the jail property, said Bones’ family attorney David Buffen.
Despite Bones’ pleas, jail employees did “little or nothing” to help her as she “slowly and painfully bled to death” for about eight hours, Buffen said.
“She dripped blood into her belly a drip at a time until she leaked a liter and a half of blood,” Buffen said.
‘There was negligence’
A Cook County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the settlement.
Buffen also said a jail guard disregarded Bones’ requests for medical attention. The guard wrote in a log that Bones would not be allowed to see a doctor until she got up off the cell floor, Buffen said.
“That’s where there was negligence,” Buffen said.
Bones, who lived in the 5300 block of South Peoria, had a 9-year-old son when she died.
