“This lady … said he fell multiple time and passed out, and they told him to quit faking it. And he begged for dialysis the entire time he was in there, and he told them they were going to kill him if he didn’t go. They just told him to quit faking it, and they eventually sent him to a cell.”

– Rosa Bermea, whose son, Bruno Elias Bermea, died in the Oklahoma City jail three days after his arrest. Bermea, who typically got dialysis three or four times per week, did not receive treatment while in jail (Source). 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Putnam joined OK Policy in 2013. As Policy Director, she supervises policy research and strategy. She previously worked as an OK Policy intern, and she was OK Policy's health care policy analyst through July 2020. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2013. As a student, she was a participant in the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute and interned with Planned Parenthood. Carly is a graduate of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Management Certification; the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council’s Partners in Policymaking; The Mine, a social entrepreneurship fellowship in Tulsa; and Leadership Tulsa Class 62. She currently serves on the boards of Restore Hope Ministries and The Arc of Oklahoma. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and doing battle with her hundred year-old house.

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