By Bret Pallotto
Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)
CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. — A federal judge’s ruling last week set the stage for more litigation on whether Centre County and the medical care provider at its jail bear liability for the treatment that left a man paralyzed from the upper torso down.
Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote a reasonable jury could conclude the medical care David B. Rossman received during his stay at the Centre County Correctional Facility “does not pass constitutional muster.”
Messages left Tuesday with the county and PrimeCare Medical were not immediately returned. Ten PrimeCare employees and two county jail corrections officers were also named as defendants.
Rossman, 26, of Bellefonte, arrived at the county jail in October 2020, five days removed from a crash that required him to undergo emergency spinal surgery. He was jailed on an outstanding bench warrant; bail was set at $75,000.
He left in an ambulance. The hardware holding his fractured vertebrae came loose, rendering him a tetraplegic.
Rossman — whose lawsuit detailed how alleged ham-handed treatment resulted in his paralysis — believes he would still be walking today if the jail’s staff took appropriate steps to ensure his discharge instructions were followed.
Bob Elion, a longtime attorney who represents Rossman, described the lawsuit in April 2021 as “the worst set of facts I’ve ever encountered in my life,” adding the care Rossman received was “almost beyond imagination.” A message left Tuesday with Elion was not immediately returned.
Rossman was ordered by his doctor to wear a brace and a cervical collar at nearly all times, save for when he was in the shower. Failing to heed those directions, Rossman was told, could lead to complications.
Once incarcerated, Rossman requested help from corrections officers with his braces on four consecutive days. It was refused each time, Brann wrote in his 57-page ruling.
Two corrections officers declined to help citing “liability concerns,” Brann wrote. On another day, Rossman called for help but received no response.
“Liability concerns are not a valid reason to deny medical care,” Brann wrote.
Rossman later reported “excruciating pain” after returning to his cell from a meeting and an X-ray was immediately ordered. Two nurses and a corrections officer, Brann wrote, required Rossman to walk to a wheelchair from his bed unassisted. They also told him to go back into his cell to retrieve his shoes, causing more pain and numbness.
A jury, Brann wrote, could find the nurses acted with “deliberate indifference.” Their obdurate response to Rossman’s emergency condition, the judge wrote, is “precisely what the Constitution forbids.”
PrimeCare has been named in dozens of federal lawsuits since 2021, many of which allege the company was negligent in providing care to people while they were incarcerated. The company provided medical care to jails in 35 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, PennLive reported in 2022.
Centre County’s commissioners approved a five-year contract with PrimeCare in 2021 at a rate of nearly $1.1 million for the first year. Annual increases were built into the agreement. The pact — as of the time it was signed — was set to expire Dec. 31, 2025.
A status conference in Rossman’s case is scheduled for Feb. 2.
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