$4M Prison Malpractice Verdict Inmate’s Death: In December 2022, a Virginia medical malpractice jury found that a prison nurse employed by a private company under contract to provide health care services to prisoners ignored the desperate pleas of an inmate who had been complaining of excruciating chest pain that was a classic symptom of a rupturing aortic aneurysm, which is a medical emergency, that a medical expert testified at trial could have been successfully treated if timely diagnosed.
The inmate, Robert Boley, had been sentenced in 1999 to more than 20 years in prison for serious felony convictions. He served most of his time in a high-security prison before being transferred to Dearfield Men’s Work Center where he worked as a prep cook and was looking forward to his release from prison in a year after which he intended to work as a long-distance truck driver.
On April 16, 2019, Boley began experiencing severe chest pain and laid down in front of the prison medical bay in a desperate effort that the on-call nurse address his condition (the pain was related to the aortic aneurysm beginning to tear). The nurse did not take his complaints seriously. Fourteen hours later, Boley was found dead in his cell, in a seated position, with his hands folded in prayer.
The Virginia prison malpractice jury found the on-call nurse, her employer, Armor Correctional Healthcare, and a sergeant at the prison liable in the amount of $4 million, which will go to Boley’s two brothers who filed the correctional medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of Boley’s estate. The jury did not hold the prison doctor, who prescribed medication for indigestion and failed to call an ambulance, liable.
The prison health care contract with Armor was reportedly cancelled months before the verdict.
It was previously reported: “On December 11, 2021, the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) announced that the state Supreme Court had denied an Emergency Motion to Stay and Petition for Review filed by Armor Correctional Health, the private contractor whose termination DOC announced the previous July. The Miami-based company had held the contract since 2014, earning $84 million annually before the cost rose to $90 million in the last fiscal year. Under DOC’s original exit plan, Armor would have remained on the job at state prisons another year after that. But DOC moved to immediately terminate the contract after Director Harold Clarke wrote in October 2021 to advise state House and Senate leaders that the agency’s “relationship and correspondence with the vendor has degraded significantly” … This appears to be the first time in which a prison system that had privatized its health care system ended its relationship with private contractors and reassumed responsibility of its own health care system.”
Armor Health states on its website: “We are proud of our history. Throughout the years, we have cared for over a million patients in jails, prisons, and federal facilities nationwide … Laser-focused on clinical outcomes and best in class interventions … Our proprietary tools have the capability to prioritize care, track trends and measure outcomes which allows us to effectively manage patient populations.”
If you or a loved one were injured due to deliberate indifference or the lack of appropriate medical care while incarcerated in a prison, jail, or other correctional facility in Virginia or in another U.S. state, you should promptly seek the legal advice of a local medical malpractice lawyer in your state who handles prisoner/inmate medical malpractice claims and may investigate your claim and represent you, if appropriate.
Visit our website or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to be connected with prisoner rights lawyers in your state who may assist you.
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