Inmate needed an amputation after medical needs ignored, suit says. Doctor owes $400K
An Alabama inmate’s toes needed to be amputated after a blister on his foot turned into a wound that wasn’t properly treated, according to a federal lawsuit against his prison doctor.
Now, a federal jury in Mobile has ruled in the favor of Canyon Moye, who had all the toes on his left foot amputated in February 2020 while he was incarcerated at Fountain Correctional Facility in Escambia County, court records show.
The jury found that Dr. Manuel Pouparina, the prison’s medical director, “was deliberately indifferent to the necessary medical needs of Canyon Moye,” according to a verdict form signed May 20.
Moye has been awarded $400,000 in compensatory damages, which are to be paid by Pouparina, court records show. The jury also had the option to award punitive damages to Moye, but they declined to do so, according to the verdict.
“This is a statement for all prisoners who have a constitutional right to adequate healthcare,” attorney Ed Rowan, who represented Moye, told McClatchy News on May 24.
The jury’s decision is “important to Canyon, and it’s deserved,” another one of his attorneys, Tiffany Ray, told Fox10 News.
“I think it’s also important in a larger sense because it sends a message that just because someone is incarcerated doesn’t mean they forfeit all of their constitutional rights,” she said.
An attorney representing Pouparina didn’t respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 23.
Inmate refused medical treatment
Before Moye’s time at Fountain Correctional Facility, he was incarcerated at Escambia County Jail from August 2018 through August 2019, according to the lawsuit. Then he was sent to Kilby Correctional Facility for about a month.
Rowan told McClatchy News that Moye was incarcerated on a theft of property offense.
He was “a victim of the opioid epidemic, who had a downturn in his life and made bad choices, leading to his incarceration,” Rowan said.
Due to an earlier back injury from 2015, Moye experiences numbness in both feet, the lawsuit says.
In May 2019, while at the county jail, Moye received medical care at an infirmary in Baldwin County, where an X-ray showed his left foot had a “fracture deformity” and swelling, according to the lawsuit.
However, his foot was “stable” when he arrived at Kilby Correctional Facility a few months later, the lawsuit says.
There, “poor quality” prison shoes led to blisters on Moye’s left foot, and his father complained about the conditions of his incarceration, according to the lawsuit.
Moye was then transferred to Fountain Correctional Facility in September or early October 2019, and his foot deteriorated further and became infected, the lawsuit says.
What started as blisters became wounds — specifically two large holes in the pads of Moye’s foot beneath his toes — that had a “stench” in late October 2019, according to the lawsuit.
Though the injury was severe, Moye was “provided little to no treatment other than cleaning the wound” and receiving ointment to apply, the lawsuit says.
Moye was treated by Pouparina and prison nurses, who “ignored the obvious need for extensive treatment by qualified physicians,” according to the lawsuit.
Pouparina and the prison’s medical staff were employed by Wexford Health Sources Inc., a correctional healthcare provider.
Wexford didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
The prison staff repeatedly denied Moye’s requests to be seen at the Wexford clinic for medical treatment, resulting in him needing an amputation due to the severity of his injury, according to the lawsuit.
The amputation was performed by a general surgeon on Feb. 26, 2020, the lawsuit says.
Following the procedure, he returned to Escambia County Jail where his foot healed, according to the lawsuit. However, he was later sent back to Fountain Correctional Facility.
While there, Moye developed another hole in his foot post-surgery, the lawsuit says.
The prison’s medical staff “continued to provide inadequate treatment by not properly packing the wounds, not properly wrapping the wound, and not allowing necessary treatment modalities,” according to the lawsuit.
After the hole festered for more than a year, he was released from prison with the injury remaining, the lawsuit says.
Moye’s lawsuit contended the prison’s medical personnel “owed a duty to (him) for his safety, general well-being, and basic human needs, such as medical care and reasonable safety.”
Rowan said Pouparina’s “actions caused a simple infection to eat away his foot until it had to be amputated.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2024 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Inmate needed an amputation after medical needs ignored, suit says. Doctor owes $400K."
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