A woman who was arrested at a hospital over the summer for failing to pay court fines died the next day because she was deprived of water at the Charleston County jail, her family’s attorneys said Wednesday. 
 
 Joyce Curnell, 50, of Edisto Island was found dead in the jail shortly before 5 p.m. July 22, a day after being taken from Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital, where she had been treated for a stomach illness. 
 
 She spent the last 27 hours of her life behind bars. During that time she became too sick to eat or call for help, according to court documents filed this week. She vomited all night and couldn’t make it to a bathroom, so jailers gave her a trash bag. Some medical staffers ignored the jail officials’ requests to tend to her, the documents alleged. 
 
 Curnell’s family filed a notice Wednesday to sue the jail’s medical contractor, Carolina Center for Occupational Health, for malpractice. Unless a settlement is reached, a lawsuit likely will follow. The filing cited expert opinion from a local doctor, who said Curnell’s death “more likely than not” would have been prevented if she had been properly treated for gastroenteritis and dehydration. 
 
 The family attorney, James Moore III, said in a statement that her death resulted from a “deliberate failure.” While a suit in state court is planned, Moore said one in federal court could follow. 
 
 “Providing access to reasonable medical care to those under police custody is a necessity, not a privilege,” he said. “It is a constitutional right. We are committed to seeking justice for Joyce and for her family.” 
 
 Curnell’s death came at a time of increased scrutiny of how black women are handled behind bars. She was one of at least six such women nationwide to die in law enforcement custody that month. They included Sandra Bland, the inmate found hanged in a Texas jail days after a state trooper pulled her from her car during a traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide, but the trooper was indicted on a perjury charge for his handling of the arrest. 
 
 In Curnell’s death, the State Law Enforcement Division did an investigation and completed a report, SLED spokesman Thom Berry said. The Post and Courier filed a S.C. Freedom of Information Act request for the document, but SLED officials did not turn it over Wednesday. 
 
 Attempts to reach the contractor through three telephone calls and an email Wednesday were not successful. Maj. Eric Watson of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail, said he had just learned of the possible lawsuit and had no immediate comment. 
 
 State law requires officials to render medical care when inmates need it, said Shaundra Scott, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. The Bill of Rights, she said, also demands humane treatment of those incarcerated. 
 
 The ACLU plans to monitor the case closely, Scott said. 
 
 “It is very unfortunate to hear of another death of an African-American while in police custody,” she said. “If Ms. Curnell was denied medical treatment, then it is our position that her constitutional rights were violated.” 
 
 Around noon on July 21, Curnell was taken from Edisto Island by ambulance to the hospital as she complained of nausea and vomiting. She was diagnosed in the emergency room with gastroenteritis, an irritation of the stomach and intestines. 
 
 At some point at the hospital, it was discovered that she had a bench warrant in a 2011 shoplifting case. She had been put on a payment plan in April 2012 to cover $1,148.90 in fines related to the charge, according to court records, but she quit paying the following January. After she didn’t respond to a letter from the court, the warrant was issued in August 2014. 
 
 No one could tell The Post and Courier how law enforcement got word of the warrant as she lay in the hospital last summer. 
 
 The Charleston Police Department was first summoned there, but officers later called deputies from the Sheriff’s Office. Watson said he could not immediately find documentation about how the authorities learned of Curnell’s charge. 
 
 The family’s attorney also said he was looking for that explanation. 
 
 Curnell was hydrated at the hospital, given medications and told to seek prompt medical attention if she continued to experience pain and vomiting. On top of her illness, she had a history of sickle cell disease, high blood pressure and alcoholism. 
 
 Doctors discharged her from the hospital with instructions. The deputies then took her to the jail around 2:30 p.m. It was her only arrest in South Carolina, according to a SLED background check. 
 
 A nurse at the jail who examined Curnell when she got there later told SLED that she was complaining only of a headache, this week’s court filings stated. A doctor prescribed medication for the headache and nausea, but the documents alleged that the staffers didn’t follow the hospital doctor’s recommendations. 
 
 Instead of staying in the jail’s medical facility, Curnell was taken to a housing unit. Jail officers reported later that she vomited “through the night” and “couldn’t make it to the bathroom,” the documents stated. They gave her a trash bag. 
 
 The jailers said they informed the medical staff of Curnell’s condition, but the experts “refused to provide any medical attention to (her) whatsoever,” the court documents stated. 
 
 She couldn’t eat breakfast the next morning. No records indicated that she was given water or intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration, the filings added. 
 
 A sheriff’s incident report stated that the medical staff checked her around 2 p.m., but within three hours, she was dead. 
 
 Maria Gibson, the Medical University Hospital primary care doctor hired as an expert witness for the family, said in an affidavit that Curnell died of complications from her sickness. Coupled with her underlying conditions, Curnell was just too sick to overcome dehydration without aid, Gibson said. 
 
 Gibson blamed a “series of conscious violations.” 
 
 “Simply put,” the doctor said, “Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water.” 
 
 Reach Dave Munday at 843-937-5553. Reach Andrew Knapp at 843-937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede. ||||| Attorneys for a woman who died in the care of the Charleston County detention center last summer say care givers there deprived her of water and medical help that could have saved her life. 
 
 Joyce Curnell of Edisto Island was arrested last July for an outstanding bench warrant connected to a shoplifting charge. Sheriff's office paperwork shows it was Curnell's son who called police and told them where to find his mother and make the arrest for her outstanding warrant. 
 
 After being cared for at Roper Hospital for a stomach flu, she was lodged in the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center. 
 
 A day later, on July 22, 2015, she was found dead, attorneys representing Curnell said. 
 
 "Simply put, Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water. She was too sick to tolerate the dehydration as a result of acute gastroenteritis," said Medical University of South Carolina physician Maria Gibson in an affidavit quoted on the law firm's website. 
 
 Gibson went on to say that proper care would have most likely prevented Curnell's death. The filing says Curnell suffered from sickle cell disease, and could have faced more risk for dehydration as a result. 
 
 "It is incomprehensible that ... we have members of our community suffering and dying from thirst and dehydration. Joyce's death was not a result of mere negligence, but a conscious, deliberate failure to provide her with the most basic of medical care," said Attorney James B. Moore III. 
 
 "Providing access to reasonable medical care to those under police custody is a necessity, not a privilege. It is a Constitutional right." 
 
 The law firm names Carolina Center for Occupational Health, the private medical group that has a contract with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office to provide all medical care to detainees, as the defendant in the case. 
 
 Curnell's son, Javon, called 911 the day after his mother went to the hospital. He told the dispatcher she was drinking herself to death and that he wanted to save her by turning her in on the outstanding warrant. He said hopefully she would be able to detox in jail. 
 
 "She's my mom but I'm trying to help her, trying to help her," Javon Curnell is heard saying on the 911 call. "She won't listen. She drinks a lot. Before I have to bury her ... She has that little warrant over her. That will give her a little time ..." 
 
 Attorneys accuse the care providers of not giving Curnell access to medication prescribed by Roper Hospital's doctors and ignoring multiple calls for help by deputies working at the jail. 
 
 The suit alleges Curnell was too weak to go to the bathroom or call for help on her own during her 27 hours of her incarceration. But attorneys who filed the suit on Curnell's behalf say there is no evidence any medical personnel at the jail offered her care or did anything to prevent dehydration. 
 
 "This is not a situation in which Joyce needed access to cutting edge medical care to save her life. She needed fluids and the attention of a doctor. Not only has nobody been prosecuted in connection with Joyce's death, it does not appear that any employee has even been reprimanded," said attorney Scott C. Evans. 
 
 Curnell died nine days after Sandra Bland was found dead in a Texas jail cell, a month in which at least six African-American women were found unresponsive while in police custody. 
 
 The ACLU said it would have representatives monitoring the case as it progressed. 
 
 "It is very unfortunate to hear of another death of an African-American while in police custody. It is alleged that Joyce Curnell died of deprivation of medical care. SC law requires officials to render medical aid whenever necessary to sick inmates," the group said in a statement.
– A lawyer says a South Carolina woman died in police custody last year because she was denied a basic necessity: water. Joyce Curnell, 50, was suffering from sickle cell disease, alcoholism, and hypertension, when she went to the emergency room with stomach flu last July. She was treated and released into police custody on July 21 over unpaid court fines, reports the Charleston Post Courier. Even though Curnell was vomiting "within minutes" of arriving at her cell at Charleston County jail, staffers failed to provide her with medical attention as advised by doctors at the hospital, according to court documents filed Wednesday against the jail's medical contractor, Carolina Center for Occupational Health. She was found dead 27 hours later, per the New York Daily News. A doctor serving as an expert witness for Curnell's family blames the woman’s death on a "series of conscious violations." She says vomiting would have activated Curnell's sickle cell disease, which can make it more difficult to fight dehydration. "Simply put, Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water," she says. Court documents say there's no record of jail staffers providing Curnell with water or intravenous fluids. Medical staffers "refused to provide any medical attention to (her) whatsoever" and denied Curnell access to her medication, the court documents allege, reports WCIV. Curnell's death was the result of a "deliberate failure," the lawyer adds. "Providing access to reasonable medical care to those under police custody is a necessity, not a privilege." Curnell is black, and the ACLU says it is monitoring the case.