The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project filed a lawsuit against York County and its former medical provider, PrimeCare Medical, Inc., and members of their nursing staff alleging that systemic failures led to their client, Willie Cunningham, to suffer life-threatening sepsis and permanent internal damage after nursing staff ignored his severe appendicitis symptoms for four days.
Although corrections staff brought him to the prison’s medical department four times for emergency care, the nurses failed to examine him or even take his vital signs. On his fifth attempt to obtain medical care, the medical staff finally sent Mr. Cunningham to the hospital. By that time, his appendix had already ruptured. He had two large abscesses in his abdomen, gangrene, peritonitis, and sepsis with acute kidney failure. He spent a month in the hospital and an additional three months convalescing. Mr. Cunningham suffered permanent internal and external scarring, ongoing gastrointestinal issues, and post-sepsis syndrome. The suit alleges that the substandard medical care Mr. Cunningham received is the result of York County and PrimeCare’s longstanding practice of ignoring and dismissing the needs of incarcerated people, maintaining false and incomplete medical records, and failing to establish practices and properly train and supervise their employees.
Legal Documents
Cunningham Complant (pdf)