Improper medical care at the Centre County jail left a Bellefonte man paralyzed, lawsuit claims
A Bellefonte-area man who was locked up at the Centre County Correctional Facility on marijuana charges sued the county Thursday, saying five days of improper medical care at the jail left him a tetraplegic.
Attorney Bob Elion, whose career has spanned five decades, described the lawsuit as “the worst set of facts I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
“It’s almost beyond imagination,” Elion said Friday. “And believe me, I’m not a guy that gets whipped up in hyperbole.”
David Rossman, 23, underwent extensive spinal surgery in October after a vehicle crash. Central to his recovery was the use of a large brace that was to be worn at all times, except while showering and in bed.
He was detained by state police immediately after he was discharged from UPMC Altoona and ended up at the county jail, Elion wrote in the 58-page federal civil rights lawsuit.
Centre County District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker set bail at $75,000. Rossman, who had an active bench warrant for a failure to appear at a previous hearing, did not post bail.
Rossman removed the brace when he climbed into his bed in a solitary cell. Medical and prison staff refused to aid him in putting the brace on in the following days, Elion wrote.
One corrections officer refused because he did not want to be “accountable,” Elion wrote.
Rossman’s condition worsened. He told a nurse he had “excruciating” pain in his arm after showering unassisted and said the pain was worse than when he was initially injured, Elion wrote.
An X-ray revealed some of the hardware installed during Rossman’s surgery was no longer attached. He was transported to the hospital by ambulance.
The trip was anything but judicious, Elion said.
A corrections officer joined Rossman in the ambulance because his bail was still secured.
Gillette-Walker changed Rossman’s bail to unsecured once he was no longer in Centre County and because no corrections officers were able to travel with him as he was flown to a hospital in Allegheny County, according to a court document.
Centre County Commissioner Michael Pipe, Administrator Margaret Gray and Centre County Correctional Facility Warden Christopher Schell did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
Rossman is seeking unspecified compensatory damages.
“They did nothing,” Elion said. “All they did was exacerbate the situation, resulting in this guy being a quadriplegic. How tragic is that?”