SECOND, EARLIER DEATH REPORTED AT TAYCHEEDAH FACILITY

Diabetic, 17, died in 1996 after unidentified virus spread through her body

A 17-year-old inmate of Taycheedah Correctional Institution died of an
unidentified systemic viral infection 12 days after being admitted to the
prison and within 10 hours of seeing a nurse for diabetes, records released
by the Fond du Lac Police Department show.

Records show Amanda Lampe was found facedown in the upper bunk of her cell
shortly after 6:15 a.m. on Sept. 11, 1996. Questions about her death have
arisen in the wake of the death earlier this month of Michelle Greer, 29, a
Taycheedah inmate who had pleaded repeatedly for treatment during an acute
asthma attack.

Greer's death has prompted calls from state legislators for hearings and an
audit of health care in the state's correctional system, and a request by
the Milwaukee County district attorney for an inquest.

Police quote prison employees as saying Lampe was being closely monitored by
health services personnel and saw them three times a day for blood sugar
tests because of her diabetes. The last visit was about 8 p.m. the night
before she died.

However, according to the Fond du Lac County medical examiner's office,
Lampe's diabetes did not cause her death. Instead, it was caused by an
unidentified viral infection that spread to her heart, lungs and liver,
authorities said and reports show.

"A 17-year-old, even if she's a diabetic taking heavy doses of insulin, is
not going to develop an overwhelming viral infection that just kills her in
the bed in a few hours," said Rep. Sheldon A. Wasserman (D-Milwaukee). "Even
Ebola virus takes longer than this. This just doesn't make sense."

Wasserman is one of the legislators calling for the state audit; he said he
wanted to determine whether Greer's death was an isolated incident or an
example of a pattern of questionable health care. Corrections officials said
Lampe and Greer were the only inmates to die at Taycheedah in the last
decade.

Wasserman reviewed the Fond du Lac police reports and autopsy report on
Lampe's death at the request of the Journal Sentinel, and said the death
seemed extremely unusual. The newspaper requested the reports on Lampe's
death after receiving an anonymous tip from a caller who believed the death
bears examination.

"It's a mystery why a 17-year-old is going to die from an overwhelming
unknown viral infection in a few hours in one night with no complaints,"
Wasserman said. "That just doesn't make sense. Here's this woman who's going
to bed about 10 p.m., she's talking to her roommate for about half an hour
and then she's dead in the morning?"

K. Alan Stormo, an assistant medical examiner for Fond du Lac County who
performed the autopsy on Lampe, also called the cause of death "unusual"
during an interview this week. Stormo said he did not know what, if
anything, Lampe told Taycheedah health care personnel during the days before
her death or whether she showed any symptoms of illness beyond her diabetes.

Bill Clausius, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections said, "She
had been to health services for an 8 p.m. visit that evening and there were
no symptoms or complaints. She was treated by our medical staff
appropriately from what we've seen in the records. We have the same kind of
reaction - that it was an unusual death."

Verna J. Lese, a registered nurse who was called to Lampe's bedside when she
was found dead, said Thursday she had no recollection of Lampe being ill,
except for diabetes. She added that she was not the nurse to care for Lampe
the night before her death.

"Without her records, I can't tell you if she ever complained of being ill,
but seeing her as much as we did, I'd find it hard to believe that she did,"
said Lese, who now works at Dodge Correctional Institution. "When we have a
diabetic that says 'I have a sore toe,' we see them. I'd be really surprised
if there was anything that we missed."

None of the prison employees interviewed by Fond du Lac police at the time
of Lampe's death said she had complained of feeling ill. Her roommate,
identified as Eva M. Runke, told police that she and Lampe were reading in
their bunks and that "everything appeared to be normal." However, she added
that the two nights before Lampe's death, Lampe had complained that "she was
always cold" and that she wore warmer-than-usual clothing to bed, police
reports show.

According to the reports, Runke first met Lampe on July 25, 1996, at Dodge
County Correctional Institute, where both were being evaluated for health
and other issues. They were transferred to Taycheedah on Aug. 30 - twelve
days before Lampe's death.

On the day before Lampe's death, prison records show, she did not receive
her bag lunch, which was normally delivered to inmates about 2:55 p.m. The
reports note that the bag lunches were "not in the right location."

"At approximately 7:30 p.m., inmate Lampe told me she had not received a bag
lunch," a corrections officer identified as K. Hendrix wrote in a report. "I
told inmate Lampe that I would get her one. . . . At 7:50 p.m. Inmate Lampe
went to HSU (health services unit); she returned at 8:45 p.m. Inmate Lampe
then stated to me, 'Just forget about my bag lunch.' "

Records show that Lampe was given fruit and milk by health services.

Runke told police that Lampe returned to their cell at about 8:50 p.m.
"complaining about being cold."

Lese told police that Lampe had diabetes for seven years, required
injections of insulin and that her diabetes was "not well controlled."
However, she said that records show that on the night before Lampe's death,
Lampe's blood sugar was in the normal range.

The report quoted Lese as saying the Lampe usually obtained her insulin
shots at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. and had her blood sugar level checked at 8 p.m.
Lese also told police Lampe didn't always follow her doctor's orders.

When found, Lampe had only been dead "a short period of time," Lese told
police.

"This is still an unexplained death," Wasserman said Wednesday. "Could this
death have been prevented? Why is this woman dying of a virus and they don't
identify what the virus is?"

Court records show Lampe was sentenced by Racine County Circuit Judge Dennis
J. Barry on July 16, 1996, to 14 months in Taycheedah after being waived
into adult court on a felony escape charge. At the time, records show, Lampe
was one of the first juveniles waived into adult court under a statutory
change that allowed juveniles who attempted to escape from a juvenile
correctional facility to be tried in adult court. Lampe, court records show,
had run away from home, from foster placements and from secure juvenile
detention facilities before being charged with the felony escape.

At her sentencing hearing, her attorney, Debra J. Patterson, told Barry that
Lampe had been in foster care early in her life because of her family's
inability to provide for her needs, and that Lampe had been abused by her
natural father.

She also had been abused in foster care, Patterson said, some of it of "a
sexual nature."

In addition, Patterson told the judge, Lampe had a history of severe
depression, had attempted suicide and was a juvenile diabetic, at times
going into a coma when her blood sugar plummeted.

"She looked at prison as an opportunity to get in control of a lot of her
problems," Patterson said in an interview Thursday. "She had a ton of
problems, but overall was a sweet kid. She readily acknowledged what she did
and was willing to take the punishment."