Following a nine-day trial and just two hours of deliberation, a jury for the Eastern District of Michigan on Thursday found Corizon Health Inc. and Dr. Keith Papendick liable for injuries suffered by Kohchise Jackson in a suit accusing the prison health services provider now known as YesCare of acting with deliberate indifference to the medical needs and civil rights of Jackson.
The jury awarded $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $300 million in punitive damages against Corizon and $100,000 in punitive damages against Papendick.
The suit alleges that Jackson's constitutional rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments were violated by the providers' denial of a medically prescribed surgery for his colovesical fistula, a medical condition in which a hole forms between the large intestine and the bladder. The condition caused Jackson to suffer multiple infections and the passing of gas and feces through his urethra, according to the complaint.
Jackson, who was a 34-year-old pretrial detainee in the St. Clair County Jail when he developed the condition, alleged that the second phase of his surgery was refused for approval by Corizon and Papendick, the company's director of utilization management, according to the complaint.
The nonapproval of the medically necessary procedure forced Jackson to spend the entirety of a two-year, two-month prison sentence using colostomy bags, which were often the wrong size or in short supply, according to the complaint.
"When Mr. Jackson lacked appropriately-sized medical supplies, watery excrement and digestive juices would leak out of the stoma and onto his body, bedding, and clothes," the suit said. "Because a stoma does not contain a sphincter, Mr. Jackson had no ability to control the timing of his bowel movements in order to avoid defecating on himself."
Just two weeks after he was released on parole, Jackson obtained medical care under Michigan's Medicaid program and underwent successful surgery a few weeks later, the suit said.
"Corizon's decision to leave plaintiff to defecate uncontrollably into a bag taped to his stomach for over two years, in order to shift the cost of his reversal surgery onto Michigan taxpayers, caused the plaintiff needless pain, suffering, humiliation, and loss of personal dignity," the complaint said.
An attorney for Jackson, Jonathan Marko, told Law360 on Monday that the case was challenging because his team was required to prove a Monell claim, or when a governmental entity can be found liable for violating a person's rights through official policies, customs or practices.
"A Monell claim is much harder to prove than a regular medical malpractice claim. You have to show custom, policy and practice, and we showed all three," he said, adding that the jury was informed of several other incidents in which Corizon approved only substandard care for injured prisoners in order to save the company money.
Another point plaintiff's counsel was able to successfully convey to the jury was "that the defendant was essentially a criminal enterprise run by individuals that put profits over people."
"The CEO came in and pled the Fifth," he said. "You know who pleads the Fifth? People who are worried about going to prison themselves. That didn't help them."
Counsel for Corizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jackson is represented by Jonathan Marko, Michael L. Jones and Allie Farris of Marko Law PLLC and Lawrence H. Margolis and Ian T. Cross of Margolis & Cross.
Corizon is represented by Sunny Rehsi, Adam Masin and Rachel B. Weil of Bowman and Brooke LLP.
The case is Jackson v. Corizon Health Inc. et al., case number 2:19-cv-13382, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
--Editing by Rich Mills.
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