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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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,” she said. 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. The filing says Curnell suffered from sickle cell disease, and could have faced more risk for dehydration as a result. 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. 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. Curnell died because she was deprived of water.” 
 
 Reach Dave Munday at 843-937-5553.
– 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.