Harmful Error

The Los Angeles Times published an extensive article on serious problems with health care at Ely State Prison.

Excerpts include the following:

"When Nevada death row inmate Charles Randolph asked for a specific medicine to address his heart condition earlier this year, Max Carter, the prison's physician assistant, sent a curt reply: The medication was the wrong kind and potentially lethal, but he would be happy to prescribe it 'so that your chances of expiring sooner are increased.'

When another prisoner, John O. Snow, asked for pills in July to ease the pain from his deteriorating joints, Carter's denial came with another stinging missive, stating that he was 'gonna let you suffer.'"

The newspaper reports that the prison has been without a staff doctor for more than 18 months and the previous staff doctor at the all men prison was a gynecologist.

Update:
The report prepared for the National Prison Project of the ACLU of the Ely State Prison by Dr. William Noel is available online through the ACLU. Dr. Noel concludes:

"Based on my review of the medical records and my interviews at Ely State Prison, it is my opinion that the medical care provided at Ely State Prison amounts to the grossest possible medical malpractice, and the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering, that I have ever encountered in the medical profession in my thirty-five years of practice.

I believe it is highly unlikely that these thirty-five cases are aberrations. These cases show a system that is so broken and dysfunctional that, in my opinion, every one of the prisoners at Ely State Prison who has serious medical needs, or who may develop serious medical needs is at enormous risk."