TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has settled a Florida inmate's lawsuit claiming inadequate medical care left him permanently disabled for $600,000.
Miami attorney Liah Catanese said Tuesday her client Robert Hernandez suffered from a serious hip condition that was not properly diagnosed by prisons medical personnel. The 54-year-old Hernandez was an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution at Coleman at the time.
Evidence at a trial before a Tampa federal judge showed Hernandez could have been treated successfully with antibiotics. Instead his leg atrophied, he was unable to walk and eventually he had hip replacement surgeries that left him with a permanent limp.
Prisons officials argued that even with early diagnosis the treatment would have been the same. Still, after testimony ended, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to the settlement.
