Man sues NYPD, says he was denied seizure medicine even though he was wearing a hospital bracelet
Ronaile Elianor says he was still wearing a hospital bracelet and had his medical discharge papers in his backpack in March when he was arrested by New York police, along with a friend, after officers allegedly saw smoke coming out of the window of their vehicle.
Although the paperwork backed up his claim that he needed the anticonvulsant medication he was carrying to avoid seizures, police refused to give it to him, resulting in two seizures and two hospitalizations during the two days he was held in Brooklyn, a federal civil rights suit alleges. He was released after the Kings County district attorney’s office declined to prosecute, reports Newsweek.
“My family members kept telling me…‘You had two seizures in one day, you know you can die from seizures, right?’” said Elianor. “My doctors told me this: ‘You gotta make a case against them because if you don’t do this, suppose they keep doing this to a lot of other people?’”
The city’s law department told Newsweek it is reviewing the lawsuit.
