BostonGlobe.com47%
Mass. prisoner death: Family points to sinus infection, meningitis 19%
By Lea Skene62%
7/31/2026, 4:44:09 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Anecdotal, and Appeal to Emotion, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 12.1% saturation with 128 hits. Analysis detected 865 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,054 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.4% and a BS Rank of 19% (20,620 of 25,458 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 81.00% of the article peer group.
Mass. prisoner death: Family points to sinus infection, meningitis
During daily calls with his father from prison, Rolando “Eloy” Figueredo often talked about the future, how he was optimistic about serving out the remainder of his two-year sentence, moving back to the North Shore, getting back to work.
When Figueredo, 38, came down with a cold in March, his family didn’t think much of it.
But when his symptoms worsened over the next couple months, including fluid draining from his ear, intense headaches and fever, they grew increasingly worried.
He repeatedly sought help from prison medical staff, the family said.
Instead of the antibiotics he requested, they offered him Tylenol, said his father, Marcos “Benjamin” Rosario.
“They told him he was exaggerating,” Rosario said in an interview earlier this week.
“They refused to treat him.”
Corrections officials declined to answer questions about the circumstances of Figueredo’s death, citing medical privacy laws.
In late May, Figueredo was hospitalized with meningitis, according to his family.
He died the following week.
No official cause of death has been released.
Autopsy results are still pending, according to the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
DOC says it has launched a review.
His family, meanwhile, is left looking for answers.
Figueredo had been incarcerated for about a year at MCI-Shirley, a medium-security state prison roughly 30 miles northwest of Boston.
He was sent there after being convicted of attempt to murder and domestic assault, charges stemming from a fight during which he allegedly choked his ex-girlfriend in 2024.
He would have become eligible for parole next spring.
Corrections officials said the department is conducting a mortality review in this case, examining staffing, training, equipment, treatment, and other relevant factors.
The review, which is nearing completion, could also include recommendations for improvement.
The state contracts with a private company, VitalCare Health Strategies, which provides healthcare in Massachusetts prisons.
VitalCare didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday.
The state’s prison medical system has long come under scrutiny amid allegations of substandard care and low staffing.
In 2024, officials cut ties with Wellpath LLC, whose troubling record drew significant criticism from prisoner rights advocates and politicians.
The state contracted with VitalCare instead, with officials calling the company a national leader in correctional healthcare.
“The Massachusetts Department of Correction’s new partnership with VitalCore reflects their deep commitment to delivering holistic healthcare to incarcerated individuals,” then-Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy said at the time.
Figueredo’s family has commissioned an independent autopsy examination, said Figueredo’s aunt Rachel Castillo.
While the report hasn’t been finalized yet, Castillo said, the pathologist told them he believes the sinus infection led to meningitis, inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
The condition has a number of causes, including bacterial infection; more often, it’s caused by the spread of a contagious virus.
When Figueredo talked to his grandma on Mother’s Day, he asked for prayers because “he thought he would die” from the unrelenting pain in his head, relatives said.
That was about a month before he was hospitalized.
In the meantime, his condition kept getting worse.
He couldn’t sleep because it felt like “his head was boiling,” like his eyeball would pop out because of the pressure, Rosario said.
“He was dying inside for months.”
Ultimately, he was brought to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester for treatment, according to the family.
Rosario said he learned about the hospitalization on May 26, when a doctor called with the news.
But he wouldn’t disclose which hospital he was calling from, directing Rosario to prison staff for that information, the father recalled.
He said the family then had difficulty getting permission to visit Figueredo.
By the time they got there, he was intubated and unresponsive.
The doctors said he was brain dead, according to family members.
Hospital staff repeatedly asked whether Figueredo’s father would consent to a “Do Not Resuscitate” agreement, according to the family.
Meanwhile, his brothers scrambled to travel home from California and Florida to say goodbye.
On June 3, Rosario got a call from the hospital saying Figueredo’s heart rate was slowing down.
He died about 15 minutes before his family arrived for what would become their final visit.
In a statement Friday, the hospital system said its policy was not to “comment publicly on the care of specific patients.”
“UMMH is committed to treating all patients, their families and loved ones with dignity and respect,” the statement said.
According to Department of Correction policy, visitation is generally not permitted for prisoners receiving care at an outside hospital — unless the person is “medically determined to be in critical condition or in imminent danger of death.”
Their father comes from a large Dominican family with deep roots in Lynn.
Figueredo moved to Massachusetts from Miami in 2017, looking for a positive environment and fresh start; he had struggled with alcohol and romantic relationships, among other challenges, his family said.
With experience in the food industry, he found a job cooking at a nursing home in Gloucester.
He loved the work, interacting with the residents and keeping them company, said Kayla Carye, another aunt.
He wanted to open a food truck someday.
But the problems from his past resurfaced again, the family said.
Figueredo was arrested in June 2024 after a drunken fight with his ex-girlfriend.
The woman told police he put her in a headlock and choked her, according to court records.
After his release on bail, Figueredo was arrested again in May 2025 because he allegedly stabbed a man with a boxcutter during an escalating altercation over money.
The resulting assault charge was later dismissed after Figueredo took a plea deal in the earlier case, court records show.
Family members said they’re holding tight to happier memories as they seek justice.
In a eulogy prepared for his funeral service, they recalled Figueredo’s lively sense of humor and stubborn, passionate nature.
They recounted a family ski trip where Figueredo poked fun at his brother, another time he wowed his dad with a surprisingly delicious chicken stew.
“When we remember Eloy, we remember all the parts that made him who he was,” they wrote.
“Only those who are forgotten truly die.”
Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com.
Follow her on X @lea_skene.
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