Jail and prison health care providers in Michigan refused to perform a surgery to reverse an inmate’s colostomy so they wouldn’t have to foot the bill, a new lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit, filed last month in federal court in Detroit, alleges that indifference by Corizon Health Inc. and Prime Healthcare Services led to former prisoner Kohchise Jackson, 37, leaking human waste onto himself and his bunk, the Detroit Free Press reports.
In 2016, a hole developed in Jackson’s colon while in custody at the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, where he was awaiting trial on charges including assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted unlawful imprisonment, the lawsuit alleges.
The condition caused Jackson, who was paroled in May, to have fecal matter leak into his bladder, leading to extreme pain, fever, vomiting and discharge of feces when he urinated, according to the lawsuit.
Jackson visited the jail’s medical contractor at least four times between July and December 2016 to complain about his ailment, only to be diagnosed with a urinary tract infection to be treated with antibiotics, the filing claims.
Jackson’s condition — a “colovesical fistula” — was later properly diagnosed in December 2016 after a trip to a hospital emergency room. Doctors at the time gave Jackson an emergency temporary colostomy, diverting his colon with a bag attached to his side, the lawsuit claims.
A reversal of the temporary colostomy was planned for February 2017, but never happened because the jail’s health care provider, Prime Healthcare Service, postponed the procedure “in order to pass the cost of the surgery onto others,” the lawsuit claims.
In March 2017, Jackson was transferred into Michigan’s prison system after being convicted. Corizon Health Inc. later refused to reverse Jackson’s temporary colostomy since it was not “medically necessary,” according to the lawsuit.
Jackson’s colostomy was ultimately reversed two weeks after he was paroled in May. The procedure was funded by Michigan’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid program, the lawsuit states.
The decision by Corizon left Jackson to “defecate uncontrollably into a bag taped to his stomach” for more than two years, causing him unnecessary pain, suffering and loss of personal dignity, the filing claims.
The Delaware-based Corizon filed a motion this month to dismiss the lawsuit, characterizing it as overly vague. The company also noted that only the Michigan Department of Corrections approves corrective surgeries, the Free Press reports.
A Corizon spokesman had no comment on the lawsuit Monday, the newspaper reports.