ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A SPECIALIST SAID infections of diabetic ulcers usually can be treated with antibiotics and that it takes time for an infection to reach a gangrenous or lethal stage.
A 42-year-old diabetic inmate and dialysis patient died at Greensville Correctional Center a year ago Saturday of blood poisoning caused by a gangrenous, ``grossly infected'' diabetic foot ulcer, the state's chief medical examiner has ruled.
Such a condition is usually, but not always, treatable with antibiotics, experts say.
Last week, the medical examiner's office conducted an autopsy and completed its report on David Frank Jones, the first in a series on inmates who died at Greensville.
Inmates at Greensville, particularly diabetics and those on dialysis, complained last year they did not receive adequate medical care. Greensville is the state's largest prison and has an infirmary where many of the system's most seriously ill inmates are held.
The Department of Corrections said the Greensville infirmary is accredited and that inmates receive proper medical care.
The medical examiner would make public only the cause of Jones' death, blood poisoning, and its classification as a natural death. Officials would not release the autopsy itself, but Jones' widow, Charlene Jones, made it available Friday to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Amy Miller, a Corrections Department spokeswoman, said Dr. Vernon Smith, corrections chief physician, will review the report and determine if proper medical protocols were followed.
Health care at Greensville is managed by a private company. A subcontractor that had provided dialysis care there lost its contract recently for unspecified business reasons, officials said.
The same subcontractor, Southeast Dialysis, of Georgia, lost its contract to provide dialysis at an Alabama prison several months ago when one inmate died and several others were injured.
A diabetes specialist, Dr. John Clore, said he could not comment or speculate on whether Jones had received proper medical care, but said infections of diabetic ulcers usually can be treated with antibiotics, or by amputation in extreme cases. He also said it takes time for an infection to reach a gangrenous or lethal stage.
However severe, most such cases can be managed, he said.
Clore is an associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Virginia, a diabetes specialist and president of the board of directors of the Virginia Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB