A dead Northern Nevada inmate’s estate claims three Nevada Department of Corrections medical providers failed to give him life-saving care in a lawsuit filed Friday.
Quinton Reese’s daughter, Naaliyah Reese, and Bonita Campbell, the special administrator of his estate, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court against Joseph Benson and Justin Voss, both physicians, and Lorenzo Villegas, a nurse.
Quinton Reese, 42, was serving a 9½- to 25-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, conspiracy of a violent crime and use of a deadly weapon enhancement, according to the corrections department.
When he entered prison in 2017, Reese notified the department of corrections that he had high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes that caused him kidney and nerve damage and end-stage kidney disease requiring hemodialysis three times per week, the complaint claimed.
But the lawsuit alleged medical providers at Northern Nevada Correctional Center repeatedly ignored Reese’s requests for medical care, leading to his death on Dec. 4, 2024, at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City.
The filing claimed Reese died from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition caused by high blood pressure and plaque buildup in arterial walls. His end-stage kidney disease was listed as a significant contributing condition to his death, according to the lawsuit.
“The medical care provided to Reese was chronically and egregiously substandard and reflected deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs,” the complaint claimed.
The corrections department, Benson, Voss and Villegas did not respond to request for comment.
Lawsuit: NDOC ‘chronically disregarded’ medical needs
The lawsuit alleged that Reese repeatedly received inadequate medical care for nearly half a year, which led to him going blind in one eye and, later, his death.
Reese was repeatedly denied his prescribed medications in a timely manner and was told refills and specialty medical appointments were subject to lengthy waitlists, the filing claimed. He also developed problems with his left eye and was denied timely care, causing him to go blind in that eye, according to the complaint.
When Reese reported consecutive days of having difficulty breathing in late September and early October 2024, a nurse told him “if you can talk, you can breathe,” according to the complaint.
Benson determined Reese had fluid in his lungs on Oct. 1, 2024, and ordered a breathing treatment and antibiotics, the lawsuit alleged, but did not order hospitalization, emergency dialysis or more extensive care for Reese.
Reese was transported by a fellow inmate to the infirmary in a wheelchair on Oct. 4, 2024, after medical staff initially refused his call for medical help, the lawsuit alleged. Reese was found to be in respiratory failure and was transported to a hospital, where the filing claimed he had “critically elevated potassium and a large volume of fluid on his lungs.”
Days before his death, the complaint claimed a dialysis nurse reported that Reese had fluid in his lungs. Villegas dismissed the concern, the filing alleged.
Reese repeatedly asked to be sent to the hospital for his kidney and respiratory symptoms for at least three days before his death, but medical staff told him there was nothing wrong with him, according to the complaint.
“Reese’s complaints were initially again mocked by NDOC medical staff, who suggested that he was faking or ‘staging’ his symptoms to ‘hang out at the hospital,’” the lawsuit alleged.
Reese was taken to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center on Dec. 2, 2024, and was pronounced dead two days later, the filing stated.
The lawsuit requested a jury trial and damages exceeding $1 million.
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
