Jailed woman, 52,  on hunger strike dies

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Updated: February 13, 2012 8:30AM

A 52-year-old woman who said she was going on a hunger strike while at Lake County jail died of dehydration and malnourishment this week, and officials are seeking her relatives and answers.

According to Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey, the woman, Lyvita Gomes from Bombay (now called Mumbai), India, had no signs of trauma or disease, but she did have an extended stomach consistent with starvation and she died of malnutrition and dehydration.

Yancey said that she looked OK from outward appearances, except for the extended stomach.

Gomes was staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Hotel at 675 Woodlands Parkway in Vernon Hills on Oct. 12 when sheriff’s deputies went to her suite and placed her under arrest for a contempt order signed by a judge. She was additionally charged with resisting arrest, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials learned a few days later there was an immigration hold for her by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and she was turned over to them. She apparently went in front of a federal magistrate in Chicago and officials assume she was given a deportation court date and released, said Comdr. Wayne Hunter, chief of administration for the sheriff’s office.

“It starts to get murky here,” he said.

Gomes missed her court date for the resisting arrest charge and another warrant was issued. Vernon Hills police went to the extended stay hotel in the afternoon of Dec. 12 and she was not there. They returned on Dec. 14 and she was taken into custody and sent to Lake County jail.

“She was uncooperative during her intake and medical screening,” said Hunter. A few days later she said she was going on a hunger strike. She was transferred from the women’s unit to the medical unit because she was refusing to eat.

“Yes, she said she was on a hunger strike. ‘I’m fine, I just don’t want to eat,’” Hunter said, quoting her.

That was Dec. 18, the earliest known date that they knew she had stopped eating.

The medical unit is not licensed to give IVs and anyone needing one is taken to the hospital. Forced feeding is also done at the hospital after certain procedures are followed.

Gomes was scheduled for a fitness evaluation on Jan. 5, but it was moved up to Dec. 30. A doctor examining her Dec. 29 said he didn’t like what he saw and she was transferred to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan. Inmates are seen by a doctor twice a week and are checked every 15 minutes.

She died Tuesday, Jan. 3, at 5:34 a.m. in the hospital, according to the coroner.

Hunter said force feeding is done through a medical procedure where a tube is inserted into the stomach and is done at the hospital.

“Her motivation (for the hunger strike) was unclear,” he said. “It’s baffling, it really is,” he added.

“She was scheduled to have a (court ordered) mental fitness evaluation for her trial.”

Coroner Yancey said he hopes getting the woman’s name out might turn up a relative. They believe she may not be from around here.

Vernon Hills police have only one other contact with her. In 2008, she was interviewed at the Hawthorne Suites in Vernon Hills, which is now the Holiday Inn Express, after a resident next door to her suite had an attempted break-in. She was interviewed to see if she saw anything or heard anything and she said she had not.