I’m wondering whether the new health care laws will bring change to the way authorities dispense medical attention to federal prisoners. They should. Because the current policy of denying preventative medical treatment costs taxpayers much more in the long run, and causes prisoners who suffer from some types of ailments to endure needless pain over extended lengths of time.
The need for this change in medical care policies for federal prisoners became clear to me today when I spoke with Mike, a man who self-surrendered to serve a nine-year sentence in the federal prison where I’m held. Mike is in his mid-40s, and did not suffer from any type of medical condition before he began serving his term last May. Administrators assigned him to a job in food services, and some of the lifting that job requires caused him to develop a hernia.
**Inguinal hernia is the result of an organ, usually bowel, protruding through a weak point or tear in the thin muscular abdominal wall. Inguinal hernias can restrict blood supply to the bowel herniated through the defect, creating a medical emergency. (https://health.google.com/health/ref/graphic/17075)
Being new to the prison system, Mike felt hopeful after talking with prisoners who were doctors. Since the hernia is in the early stage, a doctor could repair it quickly and easily with a minimally invasive procedure, but he would have to meet with the prison’s health services staff for a resolution.
Mike made an appointment with health services, and the following day a nurse scheduled time to record his complaint. As a nurse, she told Mike that she could not make a diagnosis, but that she would schedule an appointment for Mike to meet with the nurse practitioner (NP) in one week.
When the nurse practitioner examined Mike, she diagnosed him with an inguinal hernia. The symptoms included a protrusion the size of a tennis ball below his belly button. It prevented him from continuing with his walking regimen, or any type of exercise, and if he ate too much, the pain was intense. Nevertheless, the NP told Mike that he would have to live with the hernia because the medical policy did not provide for preventive treatment.
Mike objected, pointing out that treatment would not be preventative in the truest sense, since he the hernia already existed. But the NP told him that the policy would not provide treatment unless the hernia became life threatening. Mike reminded the NP that he did not have a hernia prior to surrendering to prison and that it was heavy lifting on a prison job that caused the medical condition.
The NP said she was sympathetic to Mike’s pain, but the only treatment she could authorize was ibuprofen. He offered to pay for the surgery himself, arguing that he didn’t want to live with the pain for the duration of his nine-year sentence, and he wanted to prevent the hernia from becoming worse—to the point of being life threatening. Yet, despite Mike’s please, the medical staff claimed they were restricted by policy from providing any further treatment.
Hernias do not improve spontaneously or without treatment, and in time Mike’s hernia may very well become life threatening, requiring a much more expensive surgery. Taxpayers should demand and end to such ridiculous medical treatment policies.
Ran 10 miles / 5,156 miles over 579 days
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
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