PENDLETON — On a 105-degree day in July 2012, convicted robber Jerry Gore was exhausted and sweaty when, after playing a round of basketball outside, he returned to the top floor of his wing at the Pendleton Correctional Center.
The 33-year-old from Muncie says a correction officer insisted he take a shower.
Gore entered the small shower stall, which was not ventilated, as he carried his clothes to wash along with him, and the guard locked him in. When the hot water started flowing, he passed out.
Coming to, he yelled for a guard. When the door opened, Gore passed out again, falling halfway out of the shower.
Guards placed him in front of a big fan, with a cold rag on the back of his neck, Gore says. Then they called a Signal 3000 — indicating a medical emergency.
In a lawsuit he filed, Gore claims the nurse who responded took his vital signs, then told the officers he was fine and to return him to his cell. She walked away.
"I couldn't move," Gore recalled in a recent interview. "The officers just looked at her."
He began throwing up, and he could not see or hear as his skin turned pale, he said. Guards found a wheelchair to rush him to the infirmary.