Maryland and Wexford Health Pay $200,000 to Prisoner Denied Care and Partially Blinded
by Douglas Ankney
As PLN readers know, medical care in America’s prisons and jails is horrific even by the low standard courts have set to determine what is constitutionally sufficient. In yet another case, the State of Maryland and Wexford Health Sources, the privately contracted medical provider for its Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS), agreed on April 3, 2024, to pay prisoner Nathaniel Appleby-El $200,000 for denied medical care that left him blind in his right eye.
On May 23, 2016, while Appleby-El was awaiting transfer from Patuxent Correctional Institution in Jessup, he suddenly went blind in his right eye. He was promised treatment, but he did not see an eye doctor before his transfer two days later to Branch Correctional Institution (BCI) in Cumberland. During intake there, Appleby-El reported to Wexford Registered Nurse Dawn Hawk what he believed was a detached retina. Hawk dismissed the concern and explained standard “sick call procedures” to him. Beginning on May 26, 2016, Appleby-El submitted four sick-call requests over the next two weeks, each time calling his condition a medical emergency requiring an ophthalmologist. Eventually, he ran into Registered Nurse James Hunt and complained about his unanswered medical requests. Hunt then scheduled Appleby-El to see BCI’s resident physician, Mahboob Ashraf MD, on June 14, 2016.
Dr. Ashraf agreed with Appleby-El that he was experiencing a medical emergency, referring him for an immediate appointment with an ophthalmologist. However, Wexford’s “collegial board” overrode that and placed Appleby-El on a waiting list for optometry. Six months later, when Appleby-El still had not been seen, Mahboob again referred Appleby-El on December 15, 2016, for an immediate appointment with the ophthalmologist.
Finally, on March 13, 2017, nearly a year after going blind in his right eye, Appleby-El was examined by ophthalmologist Dr. Allen Hu at Cumberland Valley Retinal Consultants, PC. He diagnosed a complete retinal detachment of the right eye—as well as a retinal tear in the prisoner’s left eye, putting him in danger of total blindness. Hu advised Wexford that Appleby-El needed urgent laser surgery on his left eye. He also advised that the delay in treatment meant the prognosis for sight recovery in Appleby-El’s right eye was “poor” or at best “very guarded.”
Even though Wexford’s ophthalmologist, Dr. Paul Goodman, then examined Appleby-El on April 26, 2017, assuring him that “emergency” surgery to repair the left eye would occur “before the week ended,” Appleby-El’s surgery at Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Clinic did not occur until June 9, 2017. Surgery on his right eye did not happen until August 25, 2017, more than 15 months after Appleby-El first complained of blindness in that eye.
Surgery was initially successful in restoring 60% of vison in his right eye. But Wexford refused to provide recommended follow-up care or order prescribed medications to prevent infections. Appleby-El filed numerous administrative complaints, each producing medication for a short time before Wexford failed to renew the prescription, leading to another administrative complaint. This pattern continued until Appleby-El developed glaucoma in his right eye. Johns Hopkins prescribed medication, but again Wexford refused to provide it. Ultimately, the optic nerve in Appleby-El’s right eye was destroyed, leaving him totally blind in that eye.
On June 24, 2019, Appleby-El filed a handwritten complaint pro se in federal court for the District of Maryland. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he accused Wexford, Mahboob and two nurses, along with DPSCS Commissioner Dayena Corcoran and BCI Warden Frank B. Bishop, Jr., of deliberate indifference to his serious medical need, in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. Defendants moved for summary judgement, which the Court denied on January 5, 2021. See: Appleby-El v. Wexford Health Sources, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 654 (D. Md.). The prisoner then retained counsel from Nicholas J. N. Stamatis of Breit Biniazan, P.C. in Arlington, Virginia; the Court also appointed him pro bono counsel from attorneys with Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, P.A. in Baltimore and Price Benowitz LLP in Washington, D.C.
The parties proceeded to reach their settlement agreement, which included any legal costs and fees that Appleby-El owed.Also under the settlement’s terms, the State agreed to pay $15,000, with Wexford responsible for the remaining $185,000. See: Appleby-El v. Wexford Health Sources, USDC (D. Md.), Case No. 8:19-cv-01868.
State Treasurer Dereck Davis, who voted to approve the State’s payment along with Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Comptroller Brooke Lierman, said: “You can say a million [dollars] and it won’t be enough, given that Appleby-El lost his eyesight in one eye.”
Added Davis about Wexford, “We pay those guys well to perform, and they didn’t.”
Maryland, like most states, continues to contract prisoner medical care to private, for-profit providers. Most recently, DPSCS signed a contract in July 2024 with YesCare, despite the bankruptcy of its predecessor, Corizon Health, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p.60.]
Additional source: Baltimore Banner
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