Fort Worth man with tuberculosis poses public health risk

A 25-year-old jailed Fort Worth man not only faces criminal charges for drug possession and auto theft, but when he is released, he also faces mandatory hospitalization for contagious tuberculosis that he refuses to treat, Tarrant County officials say.

For the past few months, Jimmy Tristian Trondle has been avoiding public health workers, even though he knows he has contagious TB — putting the public, and especially those close to him, at risk.

Tarrant County officials are now saying Trondle’s carelessness has left them with no choice other than to involuntarily commit him to a hospital for treatment, an unusual procedure.

Trondle’s first positive TB skin test, administered at the Tarrant County Public Health Department, was a year ago, but Trondle never allowed officials to do a complete examination, according to an application for his commitment and a motion for protective custody filed in state District Judge R.H. Wallace’s court on Monday.

His diagnosis wasn’t determined to be active TB — the kind that is contagious — until May, court records show.

Trondle has “refused” to follow court orders issued by the Texas Department of Health to take at least six months of treatment, according to Chris Ponder, the assistant district attorney who filed the application for Trondle’s commitment on behalf of Tarrant County.

Wallace signed the order for protective custody.

Trondle has moved from address to address, and has been hard to locate, Ponder said.

He also uses the alias “Trandle.”

“The whole tuberculosis commitment proceeding is a very rare thing, because most people who are sick want to get better, and Mr. Trondle …” Ponder sighed.

Active TB can spread through coughs and sneezes. Without treatment, the disease can be fatal. It can affect other parts of the body such as the kidneys, spine and brain, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Dodging meds

Trondle was admitted to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth on May 1 after he was hit by a motor vehicle, according to public records.

Hospital staff suspected he had TB based on an abnormal chest x-ray so additional testing was done, according to court documents.

On May 6, the Tarrant County Public Health’s “tuberculosis division” was notified by the hospital that Trondle was a “TB Suspect.”

That day, an investigator with the tuberculosis division visited Trondle and reviewed paperwork with him that gives instructions about medical appointments with the health department, treatment and tells TB patients to stay home.

“Later that day the patient left against the medical advice of the hospital,” the court document states.

He didn’t go to his appointment scheduled for May 8.

Health department officials declined to comment on the case.

“Due to HIPPA we are prevented from making any comment on this gentleman,” spokesman Kelly Hanes said. “As much as we want to talk, we cannot.”

But the protective order request states that Trondle eventually went to Tarrant County Public Health headquarters on South Main Street where he was evaluated by a doctor on May 22.

Dr. George Samuel found that Trondle had a contagious form of active mycobacterium TB.

He gave officials an address for his medications to be sent to, and that was the last they heard of him, according to public records.

As it happens, a day earlier, Trondle had been released from the Parker County Jail after he tested positive for TB, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said.

He was released on a personal recognizance bond so he could go get treatment, Fowler said. He was told to report to the health department in Mineral Wells and was sent off with an ankle monitor, he said.

Thirty-five employees at Parker County Jail were tested for TB after Trondle’s stay there. All were negative.

“Everyone who came in contact with him was checked,” Fowler said.

What’s next?

Trondle has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2008, according to public records.

He landed in jail in Tarrant County after he was arrested July 23. Fort Worth police found him driving a stolen 2011 BMW 3 series at a food mart in north Fort Worth, according to police records.

The officers who arrested him in the 2700 block of Azle Avenue found him to be in possession of 1 to 4 grams of methamphetamine, said officer Daniel Segura, a Fort Worth police spokesman.

Segura said the BMW was returned to its owner. Police did not know Trondle had TB.

“How would the police department know?” Segura asked.

He said the department has since made all the necessary internal notifications for those who came into contact with Trondle while in jail.

Trondle was transferred from the Fort Worth city jail to Tarrant County Jail on Monday.

Once county officials found out he was there, they filed the motions for commitment.

He is in Tarrant County’s Lon Evans Corrections Center in Fort Worth, which has a 96-bed male infirmary. That’s where JPS Health Network staff works with sick inmates, said sheriff's spokesman Terry Grisham.

The corrections center also has “negative pressure cells” where quarantined inmates are placed. Grisham said he did not know if Trondle is in one.

His bail is set at $7,500.

If he makes bail, he will be taken into a new type of custody — a protective order placing him at JPS — “until we can get this thing figured out,” Ponder said.

He has a hearing before Wallace on Thursday. He could be ultimately transferred to the Texas Center for Infectious Diseases in San Antonio, Ponder said.

He has been appointed a lawyer to protect his rights, he said.

The Texas Center for Infectious Diseases in San Antonio is the state’s TB hospital, which is equipped to work with “non-compliant” patients, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman with the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Three people have been committed to the center for non-compliance this year, Van Deusen said.

“Tuberculosis is not highly contagious, it usually takes pretty close contact over an extended period of time, but there would be some risk in a jail with close quarters,” he said.

That’s why it is standard for jails to screen inmates for TB. Keeping track of them after they are released is another matter.

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Fort Worth man with tuberculosis poses public health risk."