By Kevin Krause
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — A man who was booked into the Dallas County Jail with a deep open surgical wound filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against the county and the Sheriff’s Department, saying jail workers ignored his pleas for medical attention for months.
Jeffrey Ellard’s lawsuit is the first to allege serious jail medical neglect since Parkland Memorial Hospital took over jail health duties in March 2006.
County officials have blamed other cases on a former jail health contractor, the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The lawsuit accuses county workers of failing to provide Mr. Ellard with “reasonable and appropriate” medical care for his leg such as antibiotics and pain medication, as well as regular dressing changes.
Mr. Ellard’s case was included in a damaging Justice Department investigation released in December 2006. That investigation concluded that the jail’s dangerous conditions contributed to the death and injury of numerous inmates and placed others at risk of serious harm.
A Parkland spokesman said the hospital would have no comment on pending litigation. A sheriff’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.
In a letter sent last year to The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Ellard said that he was forced to stuff toilet paper into his wound to soak up blood and fluids and that he had to seek out black-market bandages.
The roughly 10-inch open wound on his upper left leg eventually became badly infected and began oozing blood and pus, the lawsuit states.
“The wound edges and internal tissue began to deteriorate, the bone became exposed, and Ellard’s wound and upper leg became red, swollen, discolored and acquired a putrid smell,” according to the lawsuit.
When he was booked into the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in December 2005, jail workers confiscated his prescribed medication and didn’t provide him with any replacement medication, the suit alleges.
Mr. Ellard said in his letter to The News that he hadn’t seen a doctor for about five months while in the jail. He said he went weeks at a time without his dressing being changed and without receiving antibiotics or pain medication, contrary to instructions faxed to jail medical staff by a Parkland doctor.
Mr. Ellard, who was in the jail on a felony drunken driving charge, was released from custody by a judge in June 2006 after an emergency hearing was held to address his worsening condition.
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News