Virginia Inmates Can Fight Over Medical Care

(CN) - A federal judge refused to dismiss a class action alleging that a women's prison in Virginia fails to treat medical conditions as a way to cut costs.

Five prisoners at Fluvanna Correction Center for Women (FCCW) in Troy, Va., are leading the charge against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC), which they say routinely violates Eighth Amendment rights and shows deliberate indifference to medical needs.

U.S. District Judge Norman Moon denied the state's motion to dismiss Tuesday.

"Plaintiffs allege that, as a result of cost-saving concerns, medical personnel at FCCW 'have failed, or refused, to invest the time or effort required to acknowledge, examine, diagnose and treat them with respect to existing or potentially serious medical problems and concerns,'" he wrote. "Indeed, the complaint is replete with specific examples of how Plaintiffs have been adversely affected as a result of this concern."

Officials with the Virginia Department of Corrections allegedly received hundreds of grievances, which should have notified them of a continuing problem at the prison facility, the decision states.

"Given that plaintiffs have alleged that the VDOC defendants remained inactive despite personal knowledge of information disclosing alleged ongoing deficiencies in medical care, plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claim may proceed against them directly," Moon wrote.

The complaint describes how the prison failed to give the proper dosage of medication prescribed to Cynthia Scott after she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease that formed nodules in her lungs, spleen and liver. Scott also allegedly developed a blood clot in her leg that was left untreated until it traveled to her lungs.

Bobinette Fearce, a second named plaintiff, says she has degenerative disc disease, causing her chronic pain. The prison doctors allegedly refused to give her enough Tylenol to alleviate her pain. She also claims to suffer from incontinence and must wear a diaper at all times, but an FCCW doctor said she is "'too old' to be afforded the surgery that would correct her bladder condition."

Patricia Knight says that a stroke caused her to lose grip strength and made walking difficult. Because her conditions allegedly prevent her from performing any prison job, Knight says she cannot afford the $5 "co-pay" for prison medical visits and therefore gets little medical care.

Marguerite Richardson says she visited the medical staff when she developed a number of boils on her leg. A test found that she had a highly contagious antibiotic-resistant infection, but the prison waited five months to give her medication to treat the infection, the complaint states.

Rebecca Scott, the fifth plaintiff, allegedly suffers from recurring tonsillitis. She says an FCCW doctor told her he "'does not believe in' removal of tonsils by surgery," that the prison has rejected her requests to see an outside specialist.

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