Attorneys for the family of George Thacker, the 59-year-old former Rhea County executive who died less than three weeks into a 33-month sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Edgefield, SC, have filed a federal lawsuit after prison officials ignored his repeated complaints and failed to treat the medical condition that led to his death on Dec. 26, 2022.
Mr. Thacker’s daughter, April Wesolowski, is represented by civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Mario Pacella of Strom Law Firm.
The lawsuit claims, "Mr.
Thacker presented as ill and had difficulty walking from the day he walked into FPC-Edgefield. But his symptoms worsened dramatically and, on Dec. 25, he complained of abdominal pain to the facility’s medical personnel. Unfortunately, instead of conducting a physical exam, medical tests or sending Mr. Thacker to the hospital, prison officials simply gave him an ibuprofen and sent him back to his dorm.
"Mr. Thacker continued to complain of pain and asked for medical attention repeatedly that day and into the night. But again prison officials ignored his complaints and left the 59-year-old to suffer in silence. Mr. Thacker died the next morning from complications due to a perforated duodenal ulcer and peptic ulcer disease."
“If the prison officials had taken George Thacker’s pain seriously and provided him with proper medical care, this father of two and grandfather of three would be alive today,” said Mr. Sellers. “Instead, they ignored him and let him suffer and die alone.”
“George Thacker was sentenced to FPC-Edgefield. But it wasn’t a death sentence,” said Mr. Pacella. “These prison officials chose to ignore Mr. Thacker. They chose to deny him the medical care he needed, and their choices killed him.”