THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604020476
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
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 that 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 Virginia Department of Corrections said that the Greensville infirmary is accredited and that inmates receive proper medical care.
The office 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 the department's chief physician, Dr. Vernon Smith, would review the report and determine whether proper medical protocols were followed.
Health care at Greensville is managed by a private company for the Department of Corrections. A subcontractor who 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 local diabetes specialist, Dr. John Clore, said he could not comment or speculate on whether Jones had received proper medical care.
But, he 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.
Dr. Richard Kahn, the chief science and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association in Alexandria, agreed with Clore.
While noting it is unusual for a diabetic to die of blood poisoning, Kahn cautioned that ``any infection can blow up and get out of hand. So, `normally treatable' does not necessarily mean `always cured.' ''
Jones' body was on its way to a Front Royal funeral home when his widow had it sent to the office of the chief medical examiner in Richmond for an autopsy.
Last September the medical examiner's office said it had conducted an unspecified number of autopsies on Greensville inmates who died last year.
Jones was serving a 12-year sentence for kidnapping and aggravated sexual battery. He was diagnosed as having diabetes when he was 18.
Jones began dialysis treatments at Greensville in 1994. Dialysis treatment is used in end-stage kidney disease.
He was released from the Greensville infirmary Feb. 16, 1995, when the staff decided the ulcer was under control and his condition was stable.
Later that month, Jones complained of the care he received at Greensville in a letter to his lawyer, a copy of which was made available to the newspaper.
Though Jones complained of some aspects of his care at Greensville, he acknowledged in letters that he was seriously ill and that great effort went into his overall care by the medical staff.
But he claimed that renal patients were not given proper diets, the dialysis lab was not kept clean and the technicians there did not appear to be adequately trained.
Jones' widow said the last time she saw him was March 26, 1995. She said his foot hurt and he could barely walk on it. She said he also was running a high fever.
Jones' mother, Anna Jones of Fredericksburg, said her son told her in an earlier conversation that five other diabetics receiving dialysis at the prison had died and that he was afraid for his life. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
PRISON CONDITIONS
Inmates at Greensville, particularly diabetics and those on
dialysis, complained last year that 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.
by CNB