Oceanside man dies in jail

A grieving Oceanside man said his son died in the Nassau County jail because guards refused to provide him medical help as he suffered a fatal attack of angioedema, a condition that causes swelling below the surface of the skin.

John Gleeson Jr., 40, died on July 14 after pleading with guards to help him, said his father, John Gleeson Sr.

John Sr. claimed that a friend of the family who works in the jail said that his son began complaining of swelling in his hands at about 2:30 p.m. that day. Three hours later, the swelling had crept up into his arms, and he warned guards that it would move into his chest and throat. Guards gave him Benadryl, which did not help.

By 7:30 p.m., his neck had swollen to twice its normal size, and Gleeson was having trouble breathing and talking. Still, guards refused to take him to a doctor. At 10:30 p.m., eight hours after he first complained of the swelling, guards found him unconscious in his cell. He was rushed to the Nassau County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11 p.m.

“They didn’t do anything,” said his father. “It is shameful, and disgusting, and completely uncalled for.”

John Jr., a father of two, had been incarcerated in the Nassau County Correctional Facility since May 22, when he was arrested for stealing a manhole cover from a parking lot in Oceanside. He had also been arrested last August for forging a prescription for oxycodone. John Sr. said that his son was addicted to drugs and down on his luck, but still a devoted father to his two children, Erin, 12, and John, 10.

“He had problems, but he was a good person and a great father,” said a distraught John Sr., who didn’t bail his son out of jail because, he said, he wanted him to take time to re-evaluate his life.

“He’d spent 45 days in jail,” John Sr. said. “He was off drugs, and contrite, and kept talking about reuniting with his kids.”

Gleeson was diagnosed with angioedema 12 or 13 years ago, and suffered several episodes through the years, his father said. When the swelling was confined to his hands, Benadryl would sometimes help, but doctors advised him to go to an emergency room if the swelling spread. Guards at the jail were alerted to his condition, his father said.

“Imagine the agony he went through in those final hours,” he said.