In a lawsuit filed on Feb. 23, a man serving time in the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex alleges that prison officials violated his civil rights by denying him proper medical treatment.
Armando Chavez-Tapia states in the lawsuit that he had been suffering from an excruciating pain in his groin area and that prison officials ignored his pleas for medical attention since his arrest on Jan. 15, 2014.
Court documents show that Chavez-Tapia is from Mexico. He was deported, but re-entered the U.S. before being arrested and sent to federal prison in San Diego.
Before he was transferred to Lompoc prison, according to the lawsuit, Chavez-Tapia indicated that he was diagnosed with cancer and had been receiving treatment before arriving at Metropolitan Correctional Center San Diego.
When Chavez-Tapia entered Lompoc FCC in October 2015, according to the lawsuit, he was ridiculed after informing a doctor that the excruciating pain spread to his rectum.
Chavez-Tapia alleges the doctor told him to “cut my genitals off and my health issue would be over.” Chavez-Tapia lists the doctor as “Dr. Dolywol” in the lawsuit. A doctor named Jaspal Dhaliwal is a medical officer at the Lompoc correctional complex, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“I have been in this institute for a little over a year and I still have not received the proper medical attention my health deserves,” Chavez-Tapia states in the lawsuit. “This medical problem is so severe that I cannot sleep.”
Lawsuit documents show that in December 2015, Chavez-Tapia was seen by a second doctor who noted nothing wrong and prescribed ibuprofen, which Chavez-Tapia said didn’t help with the pain.
Bureau officials investigated Chavez-Tapia’s claim and replied that his condition was being monitored.
The bureau’s policy states that medical procedures approved at other facilities must be reviewed and approved at the new facility, director of the bureau’s Western Region, Mary Mitchell, wrote in response to Chavez-Tapia’s claims on Sept. 27, 2016.
“You are receiving appropriate care and treatment for your medical concerns in accordance with the Bureau of Prisons Clinical Practice Guidelines,” Mitchell wrote.
The Bureau of Prisons told the Sun it doesn’t comment on “matters that are the subject to legal proceedings.”
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 6, 2017.
