Coroner - Inmate's death was completely preventable

BENTON, Ill. -- Franklin County Jail inmate Anthony Snyder's death "was 100 percent preventable," according to the coroner who determined Snyder died of pneumonia so severe that doctors mistook it for tuberculosis. The 36-year-old's body also had the kind of open bedsores more likely to be found on patients who have been neglected at nursing homes than on jail inmates, Cape Girardeau County Coroner Mike Hurst said Tuesday. Doctors who examined Snyder, a former mental patient, initially believed he had tuberculosis, sparking a scare at the jail that led to dozens of employees and 60 inmates being tested. Hurst said Tuesday that Snyder's illness was severe but that his death would have been "100-percent preventable" had he received medical care before Jan. 25, when an ambulance sped him from the jail to Southeast Missouri Hospital. Snyder died there three days later.