Laddie Roebuck, a 59-year-old inmate in the St. Louis City Justice Center, had a toe amputated at the end of November because the jail medical staff allegedly had not been properly treating his diabetic ulcers and was giving him the wrong dosage of insulin, Roebuck has claimed in a federal lawsuit.
If the medical attention he receives continues to be inadequate, Roebuck could lose more toes, said his attorney Nicole Nelson, executive director of Equity Legal Services Inc.
On December 5, Nelson visited Roebuck, who is now in a wheelchair and back at the Justice Center.
“He told me the dressing on his foot, where his toe was amputated, had not been changed in almost three days,” Nelson said.
He is also depressed and not eating, she said.
“He is terrified of what the staff there will try to do to him,” Nelson said. “They have continually threatened him before and since his return, including threats of putting things in his food.”
The city is unable to comment on Roebuck’s case because of the pending lawsuit, City Counselor Julian Bush told The American.
Roebuck, who is facing a robbery charge, has been in the Justice Center since February and has already gone to the hospital three times for hyperglycemia, or having excessively high blood-sugar levels, and for treatment of his infected, diabetic foot ulcers.
Nelson first heard about Roebuck’s situation in June, and she emailed a letter to the city counselor on August 11.
“I saw his left leg and foot swollen almost beyond recognition,” she stated to Bush in the letter.
“On the bottom of Mr. Roebuck’s left foot is a deep, brown sore; it appears to be infected. There were no bandages or dressings on this wound on the bottom of Mr. Roebuck’s left foot; simply a compression sock that he purchased which is now stained with blood from this wound. Mr. Roebuck has indicated multiple times that he has very little feeling in this left leg and that it often feels ‘ice cold’ and that he experiences much pain in this leg.”
She requested that Roebuck be immediately sent to a hospital and insisted that any delay could result in “disastrous, irreparable consequences such as the amputation of his leg or even death.”
Bush responded that she needed to get in touch with City Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass directly. When she explained that Glass had not been responsive and the matter was pressing, Bush wrote that he reached out to Glass and stated, “He reports that your client is receiving all the medical care the situation requires, was looked at yesterday and will be looked at again today.”
Hence on September 11, Roebuck filed a 62-page complaint in federal court against the city, jail, Glass and Corizon Health – the agency that the city pays more than $8 million a year to provide medical services in the city’s two jails.
Roebuck claimed that the jail was denying him adequate medical care to treat his Type-2 diabetes, specifically right foot care to prevent ulcers and infection. Although the court ordered on September 13 that the defendants respond within 10 days, the city and Glass obtained an extension until December 13. Since that time, Roebuck was hospitalized from November 21 to November 29, and he had to have his toe amputated because gangrene had set in.
“He said he’s been told by medical providers that he’s not all out of the woods,” Nelson said.
On October 22, Corizon provided a response in federal court, denying all the claims of wrongdoing and stating that Roebuck was refusing medical care. Corizon acknowledged some of Roebuck’s symptoms, but stated, “Corizon believes those symptoms occurred in spite of appropriate medical care.” Corizon also said that the two “related hospitalizations” coincided with “long stretches of plaintiff’s refusal of offered medical services.”
However, Nelson said Roebuck only refused treatment when offered an incorrect dosage of insulin.
Roebuck’s complaint states that some nurses had allegedly tried to give him a higher dose of insulin, something that Michael O’Neil, an emergency physician at St. Louis University Hospital, directed against in his evaluation of Roebuck in June. When Roebuck told one nurse that he was only prescribed to receive 30 units insulin instead of 40, the nurse allegedly told him to “pack up his things and go to the suicide cell,” the complaint states.
Receiving inconsistent doses of insulin gives him chest pain, among other symptoms, the complaint states, and he has been sent to the suicide cell eight times.
On November 27, Roebuck filed a temporary restraining order, in an attempt to make sure the jail staff follows the care plan he was given at SLU Hospital.
The restraining order includes a statement from podiatrist Dr. Shelley Gath, who evaluated the medical documents on Roebuck’s care. Gath first noted that his diet is problematic and inconsistent with the diet required for diabetics.
“The current diabetic tray provided would create hyperglycemia or high blood sugar levels on a regular basis,” Gath stated.
A doctor diagnosed Roebuck with a diabetic ulcer on February 3, she noted, and pus was draining from his diabetic ulcer since shortly after he arrived at the Justice Center.
“Medical records I reviewed reflect insufficient care of the diabetic ulcer on Mr. Roebuck’s foot,” Gath stated. “He was only receiving dressing changes, no cleaning or debridement of the wound. Continued improper care for his wound can place him at risk of amputation, as he has expressed to medical staff per the records.”
In an email to The American, Bush commented on Roebuck’s current condition, saying that the “loss of his toe is, of course, regrettable. Whether the fault lies with the city, with Corizon, with Mr. Roebuck himself, or with no one will be determined in the pending lawsuit.”
If Roebuck didn’t have such a high bail amount of $40,000, he might be able to be out of jail and receive better medical care, Nelson said.
Roebuck is accused of attempting to rob a woman outside of grocery store, without any kind of weapon. He has felony charges that stem from when he was 16, and he spent decades in prison.
While Roebuck does have prior convictions, he is also navigating two mental illnesses and substance addiction that “no one seems to be addressing,” Nelson said.
“They’re okay with letting Mr. Roebuck sit there since August – minimally – and saying, ‘He’s getting adequate care,’ when someone is saying he’s at risk of amputation,” Nelson said. “And here we are five months later, and now he’s had an amputation.”
