$3M settlement reached in Colorado inmate’s death

The Colorado Department of Corrections has reached a $3 million settlement with the family of a mentally ill inmate who died after guards ignored his seizures.

Christopher Lopez’s ordeal was captured on a six-hour video after guards at the San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo removed him from his cell March 17, 2013. The Denver Post reports guards and nurses can be heard talking, joking and laughing while Lopez was suffering grand mal seizures.

Lopez, who had bipolar schizoaffective disorder, died of severe hyponatremia, which occurs when sodium levels are too low.

The corrections department issued a statement saying the employees’ actions “were well outside of the Department’s established training, policies, and practices.”

Three employees were fired after the death.

Lopez’s mother filed the lawsuit in June.