A Jail Nurse Said He Had Heartburn. It Was Appendicitis.

After suffering with excruciating abdominal pain for almost a week, Willie Cunningham was finally sent to the hospital. By then his appendix had burst and he had gone into sepsis.

A nurse at Pennsylvania’s York County Prison told a pre-trial detainee who was suffering from appendicitis that he had heartburn and gave him Pepto-Bismol, according to a lawsuit filed on November 14 by the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project.

The suit was filed against York County, the facility’s then-medical provider, PrimeCare Medical, Inc., and three nurses who allegedly failed to treat Cunningham.

In October, York County ended its contract with PrimeCare and entered into a contract with MEDIKO, which hired many of PrimeCare’s employees, according to the suit. PrimeCare has been sued numerous times for allegedly providing dangerously inadequate medical care to incarcerated patients.

The complaint alleges that over the course of six days in December of 2023, Willie Cunningham’s health rapidly deteriorated, but medical staff dismissed his symptoms, failed to examine him, and falsified his medical records. When he was finally taken to the hospital, almost a week after his symptoms first appeared, his appendix had burst and he had gone into sepsis.

“I almost died,” Cunningham said in a statement. “I felt like the medical staff at York County Prison didn’t care whether I died or not. I filed this lawsuit because I want to try to get better medical care for people in jail. Nobody should have to fear dying in jail for a treatable medical problem.”

On December 16, 2023 Cunningham began feeling ill. Over the next two days his symptoms, including abdominal pain, worsened. On the morning of December 18, Cunningham was working at his assigned job when an officer told him he “looked awful” and directed him to take the day off.

That evening, he vomited three times. At about 11 p.m. an officer took Cunningham to the medical department. His abdominal pain was so severe that he could not stand up straight when he walked.

When they arrived at the infirmary, the assistant director of nursing told Cunningham he had heartburn and gave him Pepto-Bismol and antacid tablets.

The suit says she falsely recorded in his medical record that he had eaten dinner. She also recorded that she had palpated his abdomen and taken Cunningham’s temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respirations — none of which she did.

That night, his condition worsened, according to the complaint. He was so desperate to relieve the abdominal pain that he tried to make himself vomit.

By the morning of December 19, his sheets, shirt, and shorts were “soaked in sweat,” according to the complaint. At 6 a.m., an officer brought Cunningham back to the medical department. Once again, he could not walk upright because of the severe abdominal pain.

He saw a different nurse, but this visit was as useless as the first — she didn’t conduct a physical exam or take his vitals, although she falsely reported in his medical records that she had, according to the suit.

She allegedly told him he had a stomach virus and gave him anti-nausea medicine.

For the rest of the day, Cunningham stayed in bed. Other incarcerated people attempted to care for him. The suit says they brought him soup, fresh sheets, and encouraged him to drink water, but the excruciating pain prevented him from eating, sleeping, or drinking.

The next morning, December 20, an officer brought Cunningham back to the medical department. He saw the same nurse as the day before. She did not examine him and sent him back to his dorm.

An officer brought him back the following day. This time, Cunningham saw a different nurse, but the treatment, or lack thereof, was the same — she did not conduct an exam or take his vitals. This nurse didn’t even bother to record the visit in Cunningham’s medical record, according to the suit.

On December 22, an officer brought him back to the medical department. Finally, the two nurses on duty — who he had not seen during his prior visits — sent him to the hospital. The suit alleges that those nurses falsely recorded in his medical records that they had taken his vitals, and one of them falsely recorded that she had conducted a physical exam.

At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix with abscesses, gangrene, peritonitis — a potentially deadly type of infection if left untreated — and sepsis with acute kidney failure. He was hospitalized for a month and then faced a long recovery at home, according to the complaint.

On January 21, 2024, he was discharged and went home to his mother’s house, as he had been granted bail in the interim. Unable to afford the visiting nurse service his medical team had recommended, his elderly mother had to care for him.

“This case is about more than just the errors of three nurses,” said Evangeline Wright, Staff Attorney with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, in a statement. “It exposes a systemic failure by York County and PrimeCare to provide adequate, humane medical care, prioritizing cost and convenience over the lives of the people in their custody.”

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Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash.