The News Journal
09/26/2005
Ronald Trotman wasn't much of a criminal. In 1996, he stole a wallet off a man on the street, but the victim chased him down, beat him up and held him until police arrived.
A three-time loser, he expected to be sentenced to five years. Instead, he got 11 for second-degree robbery.
Initially, Trotman's mother, Charlotte Waite, hoped prison would benefit her son.
"He was on a roll going downhill fast," Waite said. "We thought that being in prison in Delaware -- a state that has everything -- would be good for him."
Trotman, 37, had been injecting cocaine, had acquired AIDS and hepatitis C, and was living hard on the streets.
He was just months away from getting out of prison when he contracted pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Unless treated, nearly 85 percent of people with AIDS will develop pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Outside the prison the disease is treatable with high doses of antibiotics for 30 days.
But Waite claims her son never received treatment for the pneumonia.
"His roommate would bring him food from the chow hall and help him drink," she said. "When they moved his roommate out, he couldn't get any food or water."
"The guards don't listen to the inmates," Trotman's sister Cinia Willis said. "They tell them to shut up and lie down. There's no real sick call."
Trotman lost nearly 50 percent of his body weight, dropping from 140 to 80 pounds.
His family tried to help, calling Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor, the warden and prison lieutenants. At first, prison officials called back, saying everything was OK. Then the calls stopped.
"They wanted nothing to do with us," Waite said. "We knew there was something wrong."
Dr. Ramesh Vemulapalli, a former infectious disease specialist at the Smyrna prison, was at Kent General Hospital when Trotman arrived last March. As a former prison physician, he guessed Trotman would be in bad shape. Still, he and other medical staffers were shocked.
"His lungs were popping like balloons. His lungs were beyond repair. He looked anorexic when he came in, like he was wasted," Vemulapalli said. "He was dehydrated and malnourished. He looked in no way like a 37-year-old man should have looked."
Vemulapalli reviewed the inmate's medical file in preparation for the interview with The News Journal. One Kent General physician wrote that Trotman should have been brought to the hospital one month earlier. Another hospital doctor noted that he should have been brought to the hospital seven months earlier, according to the medical file reviewed by Vemulapalli.
Trotman, Vemulapalli said, must have been showing symptoms of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia for months.
"Regarding the chest X-ray, he had such extreme pneumonia, I don't know how anybody can see that and not take care of him," he said. "He had lost weight. There was shortness of breath, coughing, bringing up phlegm and other symptoms."
The prison had been treating his condition with the antibiotic Amoxicillin, a treatment Vemulapalli says is far from sufficient.
"It's like spitting on the sun," he said. "If they knew he had AIDS, it's even worse."
After inquiries about the death from Minner and other elected officials, Taylor sent Trotman's family a letter claiming the prison didn't know the inmate had acquired AIDS.
If Trotman had been brought in earlier, Vemulapalli said, he might still be alive.
"Every patient is different. I cannot for sure say he would have lived, but he would have had a chance," he said. "We treat patients with pneumocystis pneumonia all the time, and they don't all die. I have personally treated three or four pneumocystis pneumonia patients who have been on ventilators. All recovered."
Trotman's death was hardest on his twin sister, Rolanda.
"As twins, we had a special connection," she said. "We fished and crabbed together. We dressed together, played together and took baths together, until they made us stop. He was my soul mate. We were closer than close. Now ... I cry myself to sleep every night."
Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com. Contact investigative reporter Lee Williams at 324-2362 or lwilliams@delawareonline.com.
