A 64-year-old man with medical risk factors being held in the El Paso County jail died in the hospital just six days after he issued a request for medical help, citing symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, according to an autopsy.

Wayne Baca was the first incarcerated person to die during an ongoing outbreak in the jail that has so far infected more than 1,300 inmates and 170 staff members. Another coronavirus-related inmate death, which happened about three weeks after Baca died, was previously confirmed by the El Paso County coroner.

Coroner confirms first inmate coronavirus death at El Paso County jail

Baca on Aug. 27 requested medical attention from jail staff, according to the autopsy, saying he was coughing and sleeping a lot. Jail staff tested him for COVID and the result came back positive the next day, the autopsy said. Baca was first moved to the jail’s COVID-19 unit, but then was taken to the hospital by ambulance, according to an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office release. He had “labored breathing” and low blood oxygen, the autopsy said.

Baca, the autopsy said, had pneumonia, respiratory failure, multiple blood clots and a host of other problems when he arrived the hospital. He died five days later, on Sept. 2, when his family decided to withdraw medical care.

Baca was the first jail inmate to officially die of COVID-19, although the coroner’s office earlier this month determined another man being held at the jail – 33-year-old Steven Thorne – died of coronavirus complications on Sept. 25. Thorne’s death was the first to be publicly attributed to the virus.

Baca was not vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the autopsy.

The jail conducts daily health screenings for all staff and residents, according to its website, and sheriff’s office spokeswoman Lt. Deborah Mynatt said in an email that each person held at the jail is tested using a rapid COVID-19 test and undergoes “temp screening.” She added that each incarcerated person is given two N95 masks, but that “many choose not to wear it” and that jail staff can’t force them to do so.

Still, Baca’s rapid decline after he reached out for help raises questions about the jail’s pandemic protocols and if jail staff should have been monitoring his health more closely.

Mynatt referred further questions about “in depth medical details” to Wellpath Care, a Nashville-based provider that’s been responsible for medical care at the jail since January 2020. When asked if Baca’s situation could have been caught before it became so urgent, Wellpath spokeswoman Judy Lilley said the company was “unable to comment on the care provided in this case,” citing privacy laws.

Dr. Michael Roshon, an emergency medicine physician who has played a central role in treating coronavirus patients for Centura Health in Colorado Springs, could not speak about specific coronavirus cases, but he did say the virus can cause rapid declines in patients.

“We’ve had patients that almost expired on their way to the emergency department, so we get them in that state,” Roshon said. “Its such a variable disease so its very difficult knowing who’s going to get sick slow and who’s going to get sick fast.”

Baca had pneumonia caused by COVID and bacterial pneumonia, the autopsy said. The latter “can be quite famous for causing rapid deterioration,” Roshon said, although bacterial infections are rare with COVID.

Respiratory symptoms typically appear seven to 10 days before patients experience the kind of intense downfall Baca had, he said. Difficulty breathing is the main symptom to watch for with those kinds of issues, he said, and it’s important to check oxygen levels.

Every case is different, but the key factor in mitigating some of the variability is getting vaccinated, Roshon said.