When John Kinlaw was imprisoned, the hope was that he could use the rehabilitative nature of prison to come out a new person. Like all prisoners, though, that is reliant on the staff of the prison doing the job to their best ability. Mr. Kinlaw, though, suffered a broken finger whilst he was imprisoned. Unfortunately, the injury was not properly treated by medical staff. As such, this meant that his finger, fractured whilst playing sports, became worse.
Despite x-ray images showing that he needed immediate treatment on the and to prevent incorrect healing, he was merely given an ice pack and some Motrin. The complaint alleges that, even after weeks of telling Dr. Charles Nwaokocha and other medical staff that his hand still needed more care, that nothing was done. No stabilisation or surgical treatment was put in place, meaning that the hand would heal incorrectly.
Informing the staff every few days of the severity of the injury, Kiinlaw says that he attempted to tell staff that he could not close his hand – and was afraid that his fracture was healing incorrectly. He also alleges that he was either denied additional treatment, or treatment was heavily delayed. After one month and a half of time passing since the fracture, he was unable to bend his ring finger – but was told that he needed “more healing” instead.
The complaint states that over 100 days passed before a specialist in orthopaedics took a look at his hand. The problem could potentially be unsolvable, or only fixable with surgical treatment. Speaking about the incident, Kinlaw said: “There are a lot of things I’ll never be able to do again,
“According to the testimony, I possibly have to get the amputation that my orthopaedists have said I may have a chance to get back all of my dexterity.”
His case was taken on by Nexus Services Inc, who are specialist in medical malpractice prison cases. In total, Kinlaw was awarded with a settlement of $1,058,761, with $700,000 of that fee in compensation and over $300,000 in punitive damages.
However, the lawyers with Sands Anderson, who represent Dr. Nwaokocha and Armor Correctional Health Services, say the verdict comes from a misunderstanding of the facts of the case. Edward McNelis III, attorney for Sands Andersons, said that the injury was not amenable to surgical intervention after the incident. He said that the case was ‘completely appropriate’ and ‘consistent with the care he would have received if he was not an inmate in the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Citation
https://www.nbc12.com/2019/07/19/former-va-inmate-wins-over-million-injury-lawsuit/
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