LINCOLN- According to a Nebraska state prison watchdog, the death of inmate Niccole Wetherell from cervical cancer might have been preventable if she had received regular health check-ups.

Nebraska's Inspector General for the state's Correctional System stated Thursday that the Nebraska Department of Corrections is currently out of compliance with a 2015 law that requires the agency to implement an electronic health record system that would help prison medical staff keep track of patient check-ups.

The Inspector General's report revealed that current inmate health records are just a "jumble" of paper with handwritten nurse and physician notes. These notes are allegedly often barely legible.

Wetherell went almost nine years without a pap smear test before a 2019 prison-administered exam revealed that her cancer had spread to her brain, kidneys, and lungs. The cancer was deemed inoperable. Wetherell died on Feb. 26th, 2021, in the medical unit of the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York. She was 40.

The Nebraska Legislature will be holding hearings to address healthcare issues in the state's vast prison system. The Department of Corrections, after the Inspector General's report, stated that it will have an electronic monitoring system running by the end of the year.

The Inspector General's report claimed that the type of cervical cancer Wetherell was suffering from is "highly survivable if detected early." The forensic pathologist assigned to the inmate's case stated that "more frequent surveillance" very well may have saved her life.

Since the death of Wetherell, the nurse practitioner at the facility has begun using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of patient check-ups, but this is far from what's required by Nebraska law.

In October 2018, the Department of Corrections held a bid to elicit information about health tracking systems, but abandoned that approach and instead turned its focus to an in-house system.

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