42-year-old father who died in Nassau jail last year suffered from alcohol withdrawal, report shows

A 42-year-old immigrant father of two who died in Nassau jail custody last year after being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was suffering from alcohol withdrawal, ICE said in a new report finally released this week.

Federal agents arrested Santos Banegas Reyes on Sept. 17 while en route to his construction job. He was jailed at Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow as part of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s partnership with ICE. By 6:25 a.m. the next day, he was found unresponsive in his cell and a police medic declared him dead, officials said.

Little information has been released about Banegas Reyes’ death since last fall. ICE — which is bound by a congressionally-mandated deadline to release details about detainee deaths within 90 days — blew through that deadline, Newsday reported. Asked repeatedly by Newsday, Blakeman has refused to share the man’s official cause of death or an autopsy report. Nassau’s medical examiner has also declined to share the information.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment of Banegas Reyes’ death, as it does with all deaths in custody across New York. 

The newly released ICE report, which does not disclose a cause of death, describes Banegas Reyes suffering from alcohol withdrawal.

In a preliminary report last September, ICE said Banegas Reyes’ cause of death was liver failure. His sister disputed that claim, demanding answers about how he could die “so quickly,” Newsday reported, Dr. Elliot Grodstein, a liver transplant surgeon at North Shore University Hospital, said someone who died of liver failure would show obvious symptoms before death, such as yellow skin and eyes.

This week's report makes no mention of the word “liver,” nor does it describe liver failure symptoms.

“If you don’t treat alcohol withdrawal, it’s reasonable to assume the patient may die in a few hours. That’s why it’s a serious medical emergency,” said Dr. Daniel Jafari, an emergency medicine doctor at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and an associate professor of emergency medicine and surgery at Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. 

Typically when patients come through the ER with alcohol withdrawal, doctors monitor them every 30 to 60 minutes, or more frequently based on the severity of the case, according to Jafari. Doctors prescribe Xanax or Lorazepam to such patients, and check their blood pressure and oxygen saturation regularly, he said.

It is “very unlikely” that someone would die of alcohol withdrawal if treated properly, Jafari said. Without an autopsy, it’s impossible to know what caused the death, he added.

According to the newly released ICE report, at 11:22 a.m. on Sept. 17, a registered nurse conducted a medical intake of Banegas Reyes through a Spanish translator, documenting a history of “hypertension without medication,” high blood pressure and heart rate, daily alcohol use and symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Two hours later at 1:32 p.m., a physician evaluated Banegas Reyes, reporting tremors and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, according to ICE. That doctor prescribed the Honduran native medicine for alcohol withdrawal and ordered that he stay in a lower bed bunk as a seizure precaution. The doctor also ordered drug and alcohol assessments, and vital signs.

“The important thing is whether there was a follow-up from the initial assessment,” Jafari said.

Banegas Reyes is one of more than 2,600 immigrants who were held on behalf of ICE custody at the East Meadow jail last year. ICE has said he entered the country illegally "at least four times." He had no criminal history, according to his sister.

At 6:25 a.m. on Sept. 18 during a head count, an officer found Banegas Reyes unresponsive in his cell, the ICE report said, and immediately started CPR. At 6:26 a.m., medical staff arrived and noted a lack of pulse, pale and cool skin. That staff also did CPR and administered oxygen.

At 6:30 a.m., officials called 911. Three minutes later, medical staff inserted an intravenous catheter into Banegas Reyes’ arm, the report said, and continued CPR. By 6:45 a.m., emergency responders arrived and pronounced him dead.

Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Blakeman, declined to answer questions about Banegas Reyes’ care between 1:32 p.m. and when he was declared dead at 6:45 a.m. He also declined to say whether the man was administered the medicine he was prescribed.

“That matter is under investigation by the Attorney General’s office so the county will not respond to specific information,” Boyle wrote in a statement.

Medical staff at the jail work for the Nassau University Medical Center, he wrote, which “is a state agency now, controlled by Gov. [Kathy] Hochul and all inquiries relating to the status of medical care should be addressed by [Nassau University Medical Center].”

Blakeman is running against Hochul for governor.

Tommy Meara, a spokesman for NUMC, declined to answer questions about the treatment Banegas Reyes received in jail, writing in a statement that the hospital "cannot comment publicly on the specific circumstances of an individual patient’s health care."

"[NUMC] extends its condolences to the family of Mr. Banegas Reyes," Meara wrote. "Following his death, NUMC made multiple attempts to contact the family by phone and letter to discuss his medical condition and the circumstances surrounding his passing; those outreach efforts were not returned."