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| Delaware prisons: A right to health |
| By delawareonline.com |
| Published: 01/04/2010 |
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The state and the justice department say the system has improved -- not all inmates agree Inmate Edward G. Williams has a bulge the size of a cantaloupe protruding from his abdomen. The 50-year-old believes he is being denied adequate health care in retaliation for a federal lawsuit he filed nearly two years ago seeking surgery that was recommended by a doctor in 2005. "They're trying to act like it doesn't exist," said Williams, who is serving 17 years at Vaughn Correctional Center for selling cocaine and shooting a man in 1997. Sometimes the pain is so severe that Williams cannot walk or get out of his bed in the maximum-security unit, he said. The victim of a shooting prior to his incarceration, Williams was left with a mesh over the portion of his abdomen wall that was damaged, he said. A series of scars now covers his stomach, as well as a large bulge in the right side of his abdomen. At times, he claims, he can feel his intestine flow into the bulge. When that happens, Williams said, he pushes it back behind the abdomen wall. Williams' claim comes as the Delaware Department of Correction is being credited by the U.S. Justice Department with showing significant progress under a three-year mandate to improve prison health care for its more than 6,900 inmates. When the agreement was extended last month for another two years, the federal government said the department met 214 of its 217 original health care mandates. As a result, Baylor Women's Correctional Institution and the medical care portion at Sussex Correctional Institution were not included under the extended agreement. Mental health care provided at the Georgetown prison will continue to be under review. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington and Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna remain entirely under federal scrutiny. For Vaughn, a ways to go Though there are still problems, Corrections Commissioner Carl C. Danberg said prison health care is far better than it was three years ago when a series by The News Journal revealed high inmate death rates, especially from AIDS and suicides. And the department is now in a position to argue whether the Vaughn and Young facilities should be under the new agreement, indicating progress has been made, Danberg said. "Three years ago, we couldn't have argued about it," he said, adding that Vaughn is the prison that needs the most work. "The facility is making progress, but not at the pace I believe it should be making progress." Despite Danberg's claims, Williams said, inmates have not seen much improvement. "They're not telling the truth," he said. Williams points to problems he has with bowel movements, saying he uses his hands to push at his stomach. The force has caused bloody stools and hemorrhoids, he said. "They have me on pain medication since 2005 because of the pain I go through in my stomach," he said. "It's terrible, man." At least two hernia surgeries and a colonoscopy have been recommended since 2005, according to documents in Wilmington's U.S District Court. The same document stated that an abdominal ultrasound performed in August 2005 found that "a nonreducible hernia is [at] risk for strangulation -- need to move forward [with] repair." While Williams has undergone colonoscopies, he has not received hernia surgery. Doctors changed their opinion on Williams' surgery after he filed his lawsuit on Oct. 9, 2007, he said. District Judge Joseph J. Farnan, who is overseeing the suit, said the court has concerns about Williams' care. "The delay in providing [Williams] the colonoscopy, from the time it was first medically determined that it was necessary, until it was finally performed a few months after the filing of the lawsuit, raises concerns of a constitutional dimension," Farnan said in an opinion filed on June 24, 2009. "Moreover, at the time this lawsuit was filed, hernia surgery was recommended and approved at least twice, but it was not performed." Because the suit is pending, state officials and their contracted medical health provider, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services (CMS), would not comment. CMS is being paid $39.8 million by the state this budget year. When asked why CMS offered to settle the suit with Williams in September 2009, company spokesman Ken Fields said they were not able to comment in detail because of the ongoing litigation. "We can tell you that companies involved in litigation may choose to resolve such cases for a variety of reasons, including the potential time and expense involved in ongoing court proceedings," he said. "In addition, in the context of your story about progress that has been made in the Delaware correctional health care system, it is important to point out that this case involves care that was delivered to one patient between 2005 and 2007." Read More. |
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