By Pat Grossmith
The Union Leader
MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire taxpayers paid more than $81,000 in medical expenses for a state inmate assaulted in the Berlin prison in March, according to a prison official.
Geovanny Delamota, 45, formerly of Manchester, was serving sentences for robbery and forgery convictions in Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District, when he was assaulted and suffered a serious head injury on March 18. He had to be airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon for treatment.
Nearly five months later, after continuous medical treatment, Delamota is incarcerated again, this time at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord. His continuous medical care cost the corrections department $81,411.64 through July 31, according to prison spokesman Jeffrey Lyons.
The cost could have been much higher, but in April Delamota was approved for medical parole, which released the prison from being responsible for his medical expenses.
Lyons said the inmate’s condition improved to the point that he no longer qualified for medical parole, so he was returned to the prison.
“We are assessing him to determine what kind of medical services he will need while back in prison,” Lyons said. He has not been returned to the general population but Lyons said there is a 30- to 60-day assessment period for all new or returning inmates.
Medical costs are piling up for a second inmate, Anthony J. Renzzulla, 42, who has been hospitalized at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center since July 26 after being attacked by fellow inmates at the Concord prison. What those costs total is not yet available, Lyons said.
Renzzulla’s brain was severely damaged when he was repeatedly kicked in the head by several other inmates on the medium-security unit, according to his mother. He remains in a coma and on life support.
Lyons said the Delamota and Renzzulla cases are unusual.
Medical parole of prisoners began in 2003 when legislators passed a law allowing for it. Under the law, medical parole may be granted when an inmate is terminal, debilitated, incapacitated or has an incurable medical condition or syndrome as verified by a doctor, or if “the cost of medical care, treatment and resources for the inmate is determined to be excessive.”
The state Adult Parole Board has the final say.
Inmates sentenced to life in prison without parole or to death are not eligible.
Lyons said the prison works with inmates who are eligible for medical parole to obtain Social Security, Medicaid and/or Medicare.
No prisoner who is under medical care would be released on medical parole without a plan in place to cover the individual’s medical costs and that includes private insurance, he said.
Lyons said that on occasion there are inmates who have private health insurance, but that is rare and insurance companies generally do not renew policies for incarcerated individuals.
It’s been close to five months since Delamota was seriously injured in the attack. State Police Lt. James White of the Major Crimes Unit said the investigation into the assault was slowed because investigators were unable to interview Delamota because of his medical condition.
Delamota was serving a one- to two-year sentence for forgery convictions in Manchester. He also was sentenced to three to six years for a Manchester robbery.
On Feb. 21, 2008, he threatened a Store 24 clerk with a butcher knife, forced her to open the cash drawer and grabbed about $100 from it.
At his Manchester District Court arraignment on the robbery charge, Delamota objected to a prosecutor’s wanting his bail to be set at $25,000 cash/surety, telling a judge, “I don’t consider myself a danger to society.”
He is eligible for parole on Aug. 18.
Copyright 2010 Union Leader Corp.