By Michael D. Abernethy
Times-News
GRAHAM — A former Alamance County jail inmate claims his leg was amputated because he didn’t get prescribed medications while detained there, and he’s suing Sheriff Terry Johnson and medical staff at the detention center.
Donald J. Day, of Graham, intends also to sue the N.C. Department of Corrections for similar negligence “and a MRSA infection,” attorney Norman B. Smith of Greensboro said Tuesday. The suit was filed June 4 in Alamance County Superior Court.
The suit alleges Dr. James Strickland and nurse Debbie Yates, who provided medical services to jail inmates, didn’t give him prescribed antibiotics or ointment on a skin graft site while he was in jail custody June 4-22, 2012.
“… As a result of defendants’ failure and refusal to provide plaintiff with his necessary prescriptions and proper medical care following failure of the skin graft, he eventually had his left leg amputated, so that the loss of his left leg is attributable to defendants’ neglect of plaintiff,” the suit says.
In May 2012, Day had surgery that included a skin graft on his left leg.
Smith said Day was in custody on a driving offense and probation violation. According to the N.C. Department of Corrections website, Day was on probation for driving while impaired at that time, and eventually was transferred to prison for an active sentence that ended Aug. 31, 2012.
The suit claims jail staff knew about Day’s medical condition and that the graft was “subject to failure if not given appropriate medical treatment.” Doctors at UNC Hospitals prescribed the medications.
The skin graft site eventually became open, raw and infected, and Day repeatedly notified jail staff of his condition, the suit alleges.
Strickland and Yates failed to provide medical care and refused to place Day under the care of a physician who could remedy the failed skin graft, the suit says.
Day is suing Johnson in his official capacity as administrator of the jail, claiming negligence and a violation of his civil rights. He is asking for $50,000 — the amount of the sheriff’s bond under NGM Insurance Co. — for damages, pain and suffering.
Day is suing Strickland and Yates claiming medical negligence. The suit says a medical expert has reviewed Day’s medical records, including care received at the jail, and “is willing to testify that the medical and nursing care did not comply with the applicable standards of care.”