West Virginia Inmate Files Suit Over Staph Infection

A Roane County man claims in a lawsuit he contracted a drug-resistant staph infection after jail overcrowding caused his medical needs to be ignored.

Roy Dennis of Spencer filed the lawsuit recently against the state Regional Jail Authority. It alleges the medical staff at the Central Regional Jail in Flatwoods didn’t change his ostomy pouch regularly during his incarceration this summer.

The pouch is a prosthetic device that collects waste diverted from the large intestine. Dennis says the bag was supposed to be emptied each day but wasn’t.

Dennis says he’s been hospitalized numerous times since being released in October to seek medical treatment for MRSA.

The Charleston Gazette reports Regional Jail Authority Commissioner Larry Parsons didn’t return telephone calls seeking comment.