The family of a 20-year-old man who died of appendicitis in Rikers Island custody last year is suing the city and the Correction Department, saying jail staff ignored his obvious symptoms until it was too late.
Ariel Quidone called his grandmother from Rikers on March 8, two days after his arrest, afraid of being hurt or attacked by his fellow detainees. By March 15, he was dead, but not from what he feared — his appendix had ruptured, and the septic complications ended his life, according to his autopsy results.
“A first year medical student could have diagnosed him. He had a fever, he was vomiting and he had abdominal pain. The staff knew about it, but he was left untreated,” the family’s lawyer, Marc Battipaglia of Rubenstein & Rynecki said Thursday. “Think about it. When is the last time you heard of someone dying from appendicitis, especially in the United States?”
The lawsuit, filed in Bronx Supreme Court, alleges wrongful death, negligence, medical malpractice and civil rights violations. Battipaglia said the family is also asking for an investigation by Attorney General Letitia James.
“It’s been 10 months since my son passed. Not one answer from nobody,” Quidone’s mother, Kim Quidone, said Wednesday. “I want somebody to give some answers.”
Quidone, who lived on the Lower East Side with his grandmother, loved music and singing karaoke, had an outgoing personality, and still hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do with his life, said his sister, Kaylin Quidone.
“When you’re 20, you’re just exploring, you’re trying to figure out what you want to do for your future. He didn’t even get a chance to think about his future,” she said.
Quidone marked the third of what would turn out to be 15 deaths in 2025 in city Department of Correction custody.
The most recent report by the independent federal monitor assigned to the city jails lamented that “the reform effort continues to progress at a glacial pace. Internal and external obstacles, pervasive poor practices, and an entrenched culture that opposes and/or resists reform continue to hobble the Department’s ability to materially improve the jails’ conditions with the necessary level of urgency.”
Quidone was arrested on robbery charges March 6 and ordered held on $15,000 bail. His family showed up for a March 12 court date, waiting all day to find out about his case and if they could bail him out.
AP; Obtained by Daily News
Ariel Quidone (inset), 21, was suffering from a serious infection when he went into severe medical distress Thursday in a jail on Rikers Island and died on Sunday, March 16, 2025, according to officials and sources.(AP; Obtained by Daily News)
He was never produced, though, leading his sister to ask what she could do to check on his wellness. She said she was advised to call 311.
The next day, on March 13, video surveillance shows Quidone leaving his cell in the Robert N. Davoren Centerat about 9:27 a.m., a blanket over his shoulder, appearing unwell, according to a November Board of Correction report.
He vomited into a trash bin, held his blanket over his head for a few minutes at a dayroom table, and returned to his cell, re-emerging at 10:36 a.m., not wearing a shirt.
Quidone walked past a correction officer, looking sick, and again vomited into a dayroom trash bin before moving sluggishly back to his cell. An “enhanced suicide officer” in the dayroom was busy with another detainee, and the officer he passed made no attempt to approach him.
Despite two separate conversations with Correctional Health Services staffers and two tours by a correction officer on duty, Quidone didn’t get medical help until after a suicide prevention aide noticed him unresponsive inside his cell at 3:37 p.m.
Not know what was wrong, medical staff gave him three doses of the anti-overdose medication Narcan, and three doses of epinephrine, performed CPR, used a defibrilator on him and intubated him. By 4:15 p.m., he was placed on a stretcher and taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died March 15.
DOC staff told the Board of Correction that Quidone was brought to a jail clinic March 12 because he appeared unwell, but medical records don’t show he was seen by health care staff that day, according to the report.
Quidone’s family didn’t learn about his collapse until he was already hospitalized.
“I was going to take a visit to Rikers myself, personally,” his sister, Kaylin Quidone, said. But when she checked the DOC web site March 14, she got a shock — his location was listed as Elmhurst Hospital.
“Nobody notified anyone that he was transported to Elmhurst Hospital,” she said.
Representatives of the DOC and the city Law Department didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday.
“When is it gonna stop? When is it gonna stop?” Quidone’s mother said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
