Link: Suit over inmate’s death settled (phillyBurbs.com) | Courier Times.
The family of a Lower Bucks County woman who died while an inmate at the county prison has settled a federal lawsuit for nearly $500,000.
Bucks County officials this week agreed to pay the family of Virginia Brejcak $160,000, effectively ending a two-year legal battle over what Brejcak’s family claimed was “inhumane and inept” medical treatment at the prison. The Bucks County Health Department and a company that dispenses drugs to the prison previously settled with the family for a combined $310,000, bringing the total settlement amount to $470,000.
The county’s settlement came days before a trial was to begin in federal court.
“We certainly feel and believe that the resolution of this case by the defendants is significant and important,” said attorney Michael F. Barrett, who teamed with attorney Donna Lee Jones to represent the Brejcak family. Brejcak, a 42-year-old Falls woman who was in prison for a probation violation, died Dec. 26, 2001, of a brain hemorrhage. Her death came two months after she developed severe boils, which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA caused it was later found.
