Detainee sues for neglect of cancer not diagnosed
Detainee sues for neglect of cancer not diagnosed
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2007
Francisco Castaneda says he spent more than 10 months in immigration jails in Southern California pleading for medical help as lesions on his penis grew larger and more painful, but the government's only response was to free him before it had to pay for a scheduled biopsy.
The 35-year-old Salvadoran native, who entered the United States illegally with his mother when he was 10, now says he has terminal cancer that would have been prevented by proper treatment. His cancer was diagnosed immediately after his release from federal custody in February, and his penis was amputated before he began chemotherapy.
Immigration officials are still seeking to deport him, but Castaneda's lawyers say he will probably die before his case is resolved.
On Wednesday, Castaneda filed suit accusing state and federal officials of negligent medical care.
"Government officials imposed a death sentence on Mr. Castaneda, without benefit of judge or jury, by their failure to provide a simple and inexpensive diagnostic procedure to rule out a life-threatening disease," his chief attorney, Conal Doyle of Oakland, said after filing the suit in federal court in Los Angeles.
Castaneda, in a statement released by his lawyers, said he was seeking justice "for all of the detainees who are being ignored when their health or even their lives are on the line."
Advocacy groups say poor medical treatment is a serious problem in immigration detention centers.
Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is the chief target of the suit, said she couldn't comment on the legal case, but insisted that "we take the health and welfare of those in our custody very seriously."
The agency spent $100 million last year on the health care of its 300,000 detainees, about one-fourth of whom had chronic health problems when they were taken into custody, Kice said. She said all new detainees are screened for health problems and are referred to specialists if necessary.
But a Bay Area congresswoman who presided over a hearing on detainee health care last month, which included testimony from Castaneda and two relatives of detainees who died in custody, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was "an agency in denial."
"Whatever position you take in the immigration debate, I hope we all agree that civilized people don't let the persons who are in their custody die for preventable reasons," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said in an interview Thursday.
She said testimony from the agency and detainees at the hearing described a policy in which routine health care is denied in detention centers, and emergency care is provided only if approved by a nurse at agency headquarters who has not seen the patient. Such a system is "an invitation to malpractice," Lofgren said.
Castaneda, who left El Salvador with his mother during a civil war, was living in the Los Angeles area when he was convicted of possessing methamphetamine in 2005 and spent eight months in county and state custody, his lawyers said.
His immigration case includes a claim of political asylum. He says he would be persecuted and tortured if deported because of his former affiliation with a Los Angeles Salvadoran gang.
According to his lawsuit, a doctor noticed a growth on his penis in December 2005 and ordered him referred to a urologist for an examination, but the exam was not conducted in his remaining three months in state custody.
Immigration officials then held Castaneda from March 2006 until early February at detention centers in San Diego and San Pedro. As multiple lesions developed and the pain increased, his suit said, he repeatedly sought help from medical personnel, who recommended examinations that never took place.
A physician's assistant first recommended a biopsy in April 2006, noting that Castaneda's mother had died of cancer at age 39, but a supervising doctor said it was an elective procedure that would not be provided, the suit said. Later recommendations for a biopsy and for surgery were similarly denied by physicians or officials at agency headquarters, the suit said.
It said the medical staff's response to bleeding from the lesion was to provide Castaneda with clean underwear each day.
A doctor finally ordered a biopsy in late January and said Castaneda probably had cancer. Rather than treating him, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement released Castaneda 11 days later.
He underwent the biopsy and amputation surgery at a Los Angeles County hospital. The cancer has continued to spread since then, Castaneda's lawyers said.
The lawyers said they didn't know why the government freed Castaneda while he was facing deportation, but the suit speculated that the government wanted to avoid paying for the biopsy.
If Castaneda wins his case, part of the damages will be used to reimburse the county for medical costs, Doyle said.
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
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