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This week we continue to look at inmate health care, and the politics that spawns what really happens behind the scenes, as opposed to what gets to John Q. Public out after being vetted by public relations people.. Who cares about prison inmates, you say… If you are a tax payer of CT it should be you, since the Corrections Budget in CT is almost a billion dollars a year and rising.

We had addressed the CT health care system in an earlier blog. The responses to that blog were numerous. Several came from within the system, and not all the responses were from inmates. One of the inmates, however, LC, is an elderly gentleman who has been in the system for a number of years. He tells a story of his ongoing problems with the Medical Department, and backs it up with documentation. LC has one Kidney. There came a time he started feeling severe pain in the remaining Kidney. At the time he was housed at a prison that does not have hospital facilities.  That facility was supposed to call the Infirmary at OCI and arrange for LC to be placed in the Hospital. He was in fact transported to OCI. When he got there, no one had any clue as to where he was supposed to go, or how to treat him. LC was by this time in agonizing pain. He begged and screamed for the staff to help him. They became disconcerted with the “noise” he was making and threw him in segregation. After a time, a Nurse who knew LC saw him there and managed to have him taken to see the Doctor. As luck would have it, LC drew Pillai as his Doctor. Pillai is the guy who was allegedly tossed out of at least two residency programs before coming to OCI, and who allegedly permanently lost his license in more than one state. LC supplied the documents to back this up. In any event LC goes in to see Pillai.  Pillai decides that LC is malingering and puts him in a dry cell in the hospital, with no pain medication, and no running water or toilet facilities. The long and short of it is that LC almost died. Another Pillai story.  An inmate fell in the shower. As a result of the fall, the inmate was in pain and his knew swollen badly. He went to the Medical Department where he was seen by Pillai. Pillai despite the problem being a trauma and in no way related to any infectious process place the inmate on the IV antibiotic Vancomycin.  It was totally inappropriate, and the inmate suffered bad reactions to the “Vanco.” When the inmate asked that the Vanco be stopped Pillai screamed at him that he (Pillai) was the Doctor.  Two days after the blood work came back negative Pillai had the Vanco stopped.   This stellar Department is run by an off premises Supervising physician, Dr. Edward Blanchette.

Often it is necessary for Nurses to call Dr. Blanchette for permission to have an inmate taken to an outside hospital. Equally as often, Blanchette, who has not seen the patient, refuses the nurses request. If the Nurse becomes insistent there are times when Blanchette would scream at them, even threaten their job. But also equally as often the consequences of Blanchette’s delays become life threatening to the inmate. We can (but wont) cite more than one such case.

Nursing is one of the big political footballs in the CT, particularly the OCI system. The former Nursing Supervisor has a public reprimand in her file for allegedly inciting officers to beat up inmates and then covering up the paper work. Almost anyone else would have been fired on the spot, but that supervisor “plays ball” with the administration… writing things up their way, so she was permitted to skate with her job in one piece.. That by the way came on the heels of the same supervisor being publically exposed in the newspapers for overtime hanky panky. How would you like to be a Nursing Supervisor who approves her own overtime and earned almost $175,000 in the process?  Over 20 years later, and she’s still in the system. I know of another incident where an inmate who is a member of the Jewish faith presented the Supervisor with a legitimate complaint.  In the presence presence of a Captain, she told the inmate “You people (Jews) get yourselves arrested for fraud and then come here and think you run the place.” When that inmate threatened to sue for her anti-Semitic remarks,, he was shipped out to a more distant full lock down facility in retaliation. We are in possession of an e-mail from an Administrator at DOC to a Parole Supervisor wherein she clearly states, “this inmate was moved out of OCI to Corrigan to give the staff a rest.” When the inmate successfully challenged his way back, she had him locked up in a cell block rather than be returned to a senior citizens program where he’d Previously resided. Finally, this year, they moved her to a place where she could allegedly do less harm, but she’s still in the system earning the big bucks, and then moon lighting to earn even more.  Then there’s JF another Nurse favorite of administration. She allegedly administered narcotic drugs to an inmate without bothering to get a Doctors order. Almost anyone else would be out on their tail, but she came back after a little wrist slap. That’s not; however, the end of the story, years later she does it again and the second time only receives a short suspension. In almost any hospital in the nation, this sort of abuse would lead to immediate discharge, but this is CT, and OCI, where they write the rules and change them as they go along. Come on guys. Then there’s another Nurse. She is forced to testify against co-worker by administration, and the hung out to dry. She was actually afraid to go out to her car after work. She was shunned and even received threats.  She worked in the system for many years. She had a perfect unblemished record. But it was time to get rid of her. She was a liability.  So, she is falsely accused of having a relationship with an inmate and forced to retire under threat of losing her pension. She was strong armed and bullied by DOC and CMHC. They had not a single piece of evidence to support such a relationship existed. They had the inmate’s phone tapped for three months, with not a single call to or from the Nurse, and at no time did the Nurse spend even 30 seconds alone with the inmate while he was in the CT system. That “termination” couched as a retirement is about to be litigated.  Who suffers? The tax payers of course. The fact is that on a regular basis, CO’s and a few Nurses neck in hallways where they think they can’t be seen. There’s no one to complain to. The Blue Wall of Silence comes down and nobody knows “nuttin about nuttin.”

Every so often, justice does get done. What if someone was wrongfully terminated, and instead of sitting back and acquiescing to the termination, that person retained a private investigator. And what if that person finally decided to litigate.  Given what is written above, can you imagine what a good Lawyer could do in litigation. I don’t think the “boys club” at OCI will be able to white wash this one. There will be retaliation. There always is, but there will also be the satisfaction of the truth being told.

Flu shots. This is another big issue in the CT system. To date they haven’t given flu shots to the general population, or the at risk population. What about poor old LC of the one kidney? He’s terribly at risk.  The DOC will wait until there’s an out break and then they’ll scurry…but as usual a little too little, a little too late. I suppose the DOC may have a point….It’s certainly one way to weed out the older folks.

Stay tuned for more.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.