3rd woman dies from COVID-19 at federal prison in Fort Worth as cases continue to rise
A third woman has died from coronavirus at a federal medical prison in Fort Worth where more than 500 women have tested positive.
Teresa Ely, 51, tested positive for COVID-19 on June 30, the Bureau of Prisons said in a press release. She was taken to the hospital for further treatment and put on a ventilator on July 13.
On Monday, Ely died.
FMC Carswell is a medical prison, and the BOP said Ely had long-term, pre-existing medical conditions that put her at risk of developing more serious COVID-19 symptoms.
She was sentenced to 252 months in prison for engaging in a criminal enterprise in Virginia, and had been at FMC Carswell since September 2007.
Ely is the third woman to die at the prison from COVID-19. On April 28, Andrea Circle Bear was the first — and the first woman in the country to die from the virus while in federal custody — and Sandra Kincaid, 69, became the second when she died on July 14.
One woman described conditions inside the prison as “like a scary movie” because of the rapid spread of the virus. As of Tuesday, 510 women out of the 1,357 inmates had tested positive, making it the second most infected federal prison in the country.
