Family Accepts Over A Million Dollar Settlement For Inmate’s Asthma Attack

ERIE, Pa. (AP) – A lawsuit filed by the family of a work-release inmate who died after suffering an asthma attack has been settled for $1.1 million.

The Erie Times-News reports notice of the settlement was filed Friday, ending the legal fight between Erie County and the family of 48-year-old Felix Manus. Manus died at a hospital in May 2018 after having an asthma attack while in county custody. His family filed a civil rights lawsuit in July on behalf of his estate. They say a corrections officer failed to call for medical care for the man quickly. The lawyer representing Erie County, Patrick Carey, declined to comment on the settlement. At the time of his death, the county director of the administration said the county didn’t know Manus’s medical condition. Manus had been ordered to serve three months of work release for failing to pay $750 in child support.

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)The typical symptoms being shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and tightness of the chest. When all of these appear, we know it is the distressing condition of asthma. It’s here we realize the importance of normal breathing, a thing we all take for granted all the time. The asthma attacks are dreaded, and a silent threat lurks all the time on the sufferer, with every breath he or she takes. Asthma is a chronic disease that inflames and narrows your lungs’ airways and makes breathing a tough task for the sufferer. The airways remain inflamed in this condition, and the muscles around the airways always remain tightened when a trigger flares up asthma and you suffer from a full-fledged asthma attack. Even to witness a severe attack makes your own breath alter; such is the excruciating situation for the sufferer.

Why is Asthma becoming more common in recent years?

Every year, people diagnosed with asthma are just growing leaps and bounds, and it is now turning into an epidemic. Many studies have revealed that its frequency has increased with more and more people being affected by it and, most importantly, it’s being reported in large numbers.
• A common answer to this problem could be the worsening of the air quality and the decline in environmental conditions.
• The modern houses being very tight for the existence means that the circulation of fresh air in the house is far less. The stimuli that promote asthma development, from dust and mites to molds and dander to second-hand cigarette smoke, all are found in great concentrations in tightly sealed homes.
• While there is another theory behind the rising allergy and asthma diagnosis rates and a surprising one indeed, this also makes a lot of sense. The living conditions in much of the world might be too clean, and the children are not being exposed to the kind of germs that the body can combat to build up the immune system for tougher things. When suddenly exposed to the irritants, the immune system reacts drastically, causing lungs to get inflamed and breathing a difficult task. This leading theory being studied and researched is known as the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis.
• It is also indicated that the significantly increased use of certain medications contributes to asthma increase. The early or too much use of antibiotics brings about a change in the bacterial flora and hence impacts and develops allergic diseases like asthma.
• The alarming rate of Vitamin D deficiency being reported is also a reason for the rising asthma cases. Vitamin D is essential for lung and immune system development. Children, adults with the advent of modern gadgets, spend more and more time indoors. Subsequently, there is less exposure to sunlight, and Vitamin D production is deficient in the body.