As reported by the Courthouse News Service, a former inmate has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, citing damages for civil rights as well, due to the medical attention that was denied him following a fight in the Victoria County jail that injured his eye.
I.R. is blind in one eye due to alleged unconcern by county doctors, and officers that ignored his injury and placed him in five days of solitary confinement.
The injury occurred after another inmate had punched I.R. and lacerated his eyeball.
Named in the suit filed in Federal Court are Victoria County, the Citizens Medical Center that the county uses, two county doctors and many employees of the county jail.
I.R. was 62 when the assault occurred on February 7, 2010. He suffered with a blackened left eye that had swollen shut. Jail employees transferred I.R. to Citizens Medical Center where he claimed doctors failed to treat him correctly.
In the suit I.R. states that both doctors and nurses employed at Citizens Medical Center didn’t perform a visual acuity test, or any other type of eye examination.
Allegedly, a third physician that saw I.R. recognized that he had air in the “left orbit signifying a potential injury” and told his treatment advisors. But the advisors failed to refer I.R. to an eye doctor.
With his eye still untreated, I.R. was returned to the Victoria County jail and examined by a nurse in the infirmary. The notation by the nurse read that I.R.’s eye was “bloody and swollen shut.”
The complaint reads: “…At no point from February 8, 2010 to his transfer on or around February 13, 2010 did any medical provider check on Mr. (I.R.) or even have a guard check on him despite their knowledge of his injuries. Mr. (I.R.) remained in lockdown and unable see the nurse or any other medical provider on his own. As a consequence, the pain in his left eye persisted and (I.R.’s) vision deteriorated. Each time guards would bring him food; he asked to see the nurse because of pain to his eye and vision difficulties. He even asked specifically for a sick call form, as he had done in the past, and as he believed to be necessary to see the nurse.”
Requests for sick calls are not available to inmates in lockdown according to I.R. Instead, he used the cell’s intercom to call to officers for help – and was allegedly ignored.
Near or on February 9, 2010, I.R. met with A.D. – an individual sent to talk to him about possibly prosecuting those that assaulted him – and asked for help in getting medical care. Allegedly A.D. also refused to aid I.R. and told him that he could see a physician later that week – when he would be transferred to the San Antonio jail.
Once in San Antonio I.R. was examined by a doctor. He was then referred to an ophthalmologist for treatment.
The complaint read: “But, it was too late. Mr. (I.R.) could no longer see out of his left eye and needed to undergo surgery to remove the eyeball altogether so as to prevent additional harm.”
If you have been hurt by a doctor's treatment or by failure to treat, contact a medical malpractice attorney. An attorney can help you file your lawsuit and seek an award for your damages.