$875,000 Award for Illinois Prisoner’s Delay in Getting Hernia Surgery
On April 1, 2024, jury in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded $875,000 to state prisoner John E. Taylor, Jr., after finding officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and its contracted medical provider, Wexford Health Sources, had violated his constitutional rights with the deliberate indifference they showed to his diagnosed conditions of a hernia and chronic neck and back pain.
Taylor underwent treatment in a Virginia prison for abdominal cancer in 1992. While incarcerated by DOC at Stateville Correctional Center in 2013, doctors were treating him for groin swelling when they discovered a growth in Taylor’s abdomen, right pelvic bone, and right gluteal muscles. Fearing cancerous tumors, they sent Taylor to a hospital, where he underwent surgery in April 2014 to remove the growths and infected tissue and bone. But a CT scan conducted two days after surgery showed that Taylor had a hernia on the right side of his abdomen. That eventually resulted in the first documented hernia diagnosis made for him on November 25, 2014.
Taylor claimed that between his April 2014 surgery and the documented hernia diagnosis seven months later, he complained about “substantial swelling” in his abdomen and groin to Dr. Saleh Obaisi, a Wexford employee who served as Stateville’s Medical Director from at least 2012 until his death in December 2017, and Dr. Arthur Funk, who since 2005 was Wexford’s Regional Medical Director for the northern region of Illinois.
But it was not until February 9, 2015, that Taylor returned to the hospital for treatment of the hernia. The surgeon there recommended tests and review by a general surgeon. A colonoscopy and CT scan were conducted on May 27, 2015, but a follow-up with the general surgeon did not occur until July 22, 2015. More delays ensued before finally, on October 14, 2015, the general surgeon diagnosed Taylor with a “big hernia” with “70% of the bowel contained in the hernia sac.” Yet more delays persisted, and Taylor continued to impute knowledge upon the defendants by filing numerous grievances.
Between October 2015 and July 26, 2016, Taylor saw two general surgeons and two plastic surgeons. On the latter appointment date, which was two days after the general surgeon recommended hernia surgery, Obaisi approved surgery.
Yet again, delays ensued as Taylor filed grievances. Taylor again saw a surgeon on January 9, 2017, but by then his condition had worsened, creating a significant surgical risk due to “loss of domain” in Taylor’s abdominal wall. Another round of consults began. An abdominal brace was recommended by a plastic surgeon in lieu of surgery on March 2, 2017. Yet as of August 1, 2017, when Taylor filed his civil rights complaint, Dr. Obaisi had not ordered it.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a preliminary injunction to facilitate a second opinion on hernia surgery and for Taylor to be provided the abdominal brace. On May 15, 2018, Taylor underwent a seven-hour hernia surgery that involved numerous complications, which his medical expert testified were due to the delay in care.
While Taylor was dealing with pain from the hernia, he was also enduring delays in pain treatment from a diagnosis of degenerative disc disease, foraminal stenosis, and osteophytes in his cervical and lumbar spine. Taylor waited four years for an epidural injection, and despite an order to return a month later, it was another three years before prison officials returned him to the hospital for another injection.
Some defendants were then dismissed at summary judgment, but the case proceeded to trial on liability for Obaisi, Funk, and former Stateville Warden Tarry Williams. Jurors then found Obaisi and Funk were deliberately indifferent to Taylor’s serious medical needs, in violation of his Eighth Amendment guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. He was awarded $500,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages against Funk. The jury further found Williams was liable for denial of pain clinic treatment and awarded Taylor $250,000 in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages.
Wexford notified the district court on January 21, 2025, that a settlement had been reached for an undisclosed amount to cover both the award against Obaisi and Funk and Taylor’s related attorney’s fees. A motion by Williams for judgment as a matter of law was still pending as of March 5, 2025, and PLN will update developments as they are available.
Though Taylor filed his suit pro se, he was appointed counsel. He is currently represented by attorneys John. D. Cooke and Michael J. Silverman of Duane Morris LLP, along with Richard P. Darke and Rosanne Ciambrone of Dykema Gossett PLLC, all in Chicago. See: Taylor v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., USDC (N.D. Ill.), Case No. 1:16-cv-03464.
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Related legal case
Taylor v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc.
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Ill.), Case No. 1:16-cv-03464 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Jury Verdict |