Wyoming

[palmspringsbum]

State settles with former inmate in medical case

By BEN NEARY
Associated Press
The Billings Gazete
June 21, 2006

CHEYENNE -- The State of Wyoming has paid $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by a former Wyoming prison inmate who blamed the state Department of Corrections and a private company that provided medical care to inmates for the loss of his lower right leg.

Salvatore Lucido, a diabetic, filed the lawsuit in April 2004 charging that he developed sores on his feet when the staff at the state prison in Rawlins refused to give him appropriate shoes.

Diabetics often have poor blood circulation in their feet, which means that injuries may be slow to heal and prone to infection.

Lucido contended that prison officials and Correctional Medical Services, a private company that provided health care to inmates, delayed taking him to a hospital where his foot might have been saved. The lawsuit states that the officials hoped that if they delayed getting Lucido medical care, "that his release date of April 23 (2003) would arrive before it became too apparent that hospitalization could not be delayed any longer."

The lawsuit states that prison officials took Lucido to a hospital on April 18, 2003, more than three weeks after a nurse had noted that he needed emergency surgery to try to save his foot.

The lawsuit states that he was taken to the hospital "after his foot literally exploded from the infection and swelling." His lower right leg was amputated on May 2, 2003.

John Robinson, a Casper lawyer representing Lucido in the lawsuit, declined comment on the case Wednesday. Robinson and a state lawyer filed notice in court early this month that Lucido's claims against the state had been settled.

Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank said Wednesday that the state paid $50,000 to Lucido to settle the lawsuit. Crank declined comment on the case.

According to court records, Lucido also has reached a settlement with Memorial Hospital of Carbon County. The court file includes no information about the terms of that settlement and a hospital official could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson has scheduled a trial to start Tuesday in Lucido's remaining claims against Correctional Medical Services and Dr. John Coyle. The lawsuit states Coyle provided medical services for inmates at the state prison.

Scott Ortiz, a Casper lawyer representing CMS and Coyle, didn't immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday.

Melinda Brazzale, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, said Lucido received a sentence of two years probation from a Casper judge in August 2001 on a charge of unlawful manufacture or delivery of marijuana. She said his probation later was revoked and he served 13 months in Wyoming prisons, from April 2002 to May 2003.

An independent audit last year found that some inmates hadn't receive timely health care because of record-keeping problems caused mainly by changes in the private contractors.

Correctional Medical Services, a Missouri company, had held the contract to provide inmate health services at the Rawlins prison for six years before losing the contract to a competitor, Prison Health Services, last summer.

Linda Burt, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Wyoming, said Wednesday that her office continues to get many complaints from inmates at the Rawlins prison about health care, particularly from inmates who are diabetic.

"I don't think you can do (prison) medical care privately and do a good job, and I don't think you can do it for profit and do a good job," Burt said. "It's extraordinarily difficult, and I haven't seen any success in that area."