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Jailers Failed to Help Stroke Victim

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A popular baseball coach who suffered a stroke while driving and swerved off the road into a guardrail needed an ambulance. But sheriff's deputies didn't recognize the slurred speech and inability to move as a stroke, and hauled the driver to jail. 

  

There, theTampa Bay Times reports, he lay on the floor untreated for 36 hours -- a fatal delay.

The Hillsborough County Jail settled the family's lawsuit for $200,000; the South Florida company that contracts with the jail settled for $800,000, according to the Times.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.