Illinois Prisoner Awarded Over $822,000 For Hernia Care Denied by Wexford Health
by Douglas Ankney
On April 2, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois denied relief to Wexford Health Sources, Inc., the private healthcare contractor for the state Department of Corrections (DOC), from a $750,000 jury verdict for delayed surgery that left a state prisoner to suffer an untreated hernia in pain. The Court then awarded counsel for prisoner Reco Reed another $72,210.04 in costs and fees.
Reed was held at Centralia Correctional Center when Wexford staff manning the prison healthcare unit (PHU) diagnosed him in March 2017 with a right inguinal hernia. According to the complaint he later filed, this “occurs when the contents of the abdomen—including intestines and fat—bulge through a tear or weakness in the groin area.” The resulting pain “typically worsens with activity or exertion,” the complaint continued; even “routine activities” like “walking, running, lifting, coughing, urinating, defecating, and even sitting up can cause tissue to bulge out of the abdominal wall.”
A “reducible hernia,” the complaint explained, “can be pushed back into place.” But as Reed’s complaint noted, a prisoner “expected to walk and stand in straight lines on the prison compound cannot simply lie down on the ground to push his intestines back into place.” Meanwhile an untreated hernia can become strangulated, “meaning the blood supply to the bulging tissue is cut off, causing the tissue to die,” the complaint noted. This is an emergency requiring immediate surgery, since failure to treat a strangulated hernia “can lead to severe infection, intestinal obstruction, the excision of intestines, and death.”
From April thru June 2017, Reed reported with hernia pain four times to PHU, but he received only a hernia belt and skin cream for the rash it caused. In July 2017, Reed was transferred to Big Muddy Correctional Center, where his hernia became progressively worse. Yet he was not referred to a surgeon for repair, even though, as his complaint pointed out, that is “the proper treatment.” He unsuccessfully sought treatment five more times through December 2017. His emergency grievances were denied by a DOC official with no medical training.
In January 2018, Reed was finally seen by Wexford Dr. Dennis Larson. Though the hernia had grown significantly larger and more painful, he still was not referred to a surgeon. On February 24, 2018, Reed could no longer keep his hernia reduced—it continued to “pop out,” and he could not keep it from protruding. Yet Larson still refused to refer Reed to a surgeon. Finally, in June 2018, Reed’s case was submitted for collegial review. The surgery was at last performed in September 2018—18 months after Reed first sought treatment.
But following surgery, Reed discovered his right testicle was “missing”—it had retreated into his inguinal canal. After yet another collegial review, Reed underwent a second surgery in October 2018 to move the testicle back into his scrotum. But the surgery was unsuccessful, and Reed continues to suffer from a retracted right testicle, placing him at an increased cancer risk.
With the aid of attorney Thomas J. Pliura, M.D., J.D., Reed filed suit in the Court in June 2019 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, accusing Larson and Wexford of deliberate indifference to his serious medical need by delaying his treatment, in violation of his Eighth Amendment guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Noting that Wexford had held the $1.36 billion contract with DOC for prisoner healthcare since 2011, Reed’s complaint alleged that its “collegial review” was a ruse to maintain a “policy or custom” of denying or delaying referrals to outside physicians. Specifically, the complaint said, the firm had a policy of “refusing to authorize surgical repair of abdominal hernias unless the hernia became strangulated or incarcerated”—leaving patients like Reed to suffer until their ailment got bad enough for Wexford to treat it. The Court’s judgment on April 10, 2023, reflected a jury award of $250,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages against Wexford. See: Reed v. Larson, USDC (S.D. Ill.), Case No. 18-cv-01182.
The firm filed for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, but the Court denied that motion on April 2, 2024. Wexford also challenged the punitive damages award, pointing to new hernia surgery policy already in place and the fact that Reed had asked only for $150,000. But the Court denied that motion, too, again declining to second-guess the jury. It also refused to order a new trial, finding the first “was fair to the parties and the verdict was supported by sufficient evidence.” See: Reed v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60800 (S.D. Ill.).
A $2,210.04 award for legal costs followed on April 19, 2024, when the Court also awarded $170,000 in attorney’s fees. Of that, Reed was deemed responsible for $100,000 under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, leaving Wexford on the hook for $70,000, or a total judgment of $822,210.04. See: Reed v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72292 (S.D. Ill.).
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Related legal case
Reed v. Larson
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (S.D. Ill.), Case No. 18-cv-01182 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Jury Verdict |
| Attorney Fees | 172,210.04 |
| Damages | 750,000.00 |