On December 9, Rae Haltzman, 65 and hypertension, started vomiting, but was unable to call for help. She lay down by the locked living room door with a blanket “waiting for someone to come,” she wrote in a court filing. When she saw a psychologist leaving the building, “I knocked on the door and asked him to call a doctor”.
Mrs. Haltzman ended up in hospital for nine days. After being discharged on December 18, she was placed alone in a locked room “which is normally used for suicide surveillance or drug withdrawal cases,” she wrote. She stayed there until January 2, although the hospital’s infectious disease specialist said it was not necessary for her to be isolated.
“I had panic attacks for being left alone in the room for so long,” she said. “I felt the whole time as if I was being punished for getting sick.”
Another inmate, Denise Bonfilio, also became seriously ill in the male prison’s parlor. Her lips turned blue and she was sent to the hospital. She was found dehydrated, but she was not admitted and went back to her room.
Because of her food allergies, Ms. Bonfilio was often unable to eat the meals provided, which may have contributed to her dehydration. In an interview, she described the treatment in the isolation room as “physically and emotionally brutal”.
“It was like the survival of the fittest,” said Bonfilio.
Prisoners had to order the items they needed from the commissioner, recalled Torres, who received house arrest on December 23. “We literally bought Halls, ibuprofen and hot tea,” she said.
“We were all scared,” said Spagnardi. “We were all thinking that we would die there and no one would know until the count.”