Common Sense is Not So Common
From 2008 until April of 2016, I received a medical No-Soy diet. The IDOC industry meat substitutes made me sick. I proved this up. In 2016, my diet was denied. Danville C.C.’s staff saw that the other prisoners wanted the same medical diet I was given. The Health Care Unit administrator in the Danville Correctional Center saw their requests as a problem. The answer was to stop MY diet, and possibly silence the other prisoners. I was told I could eat the soy-laden prison food.
When the food made me sick, the medical Department would treat me. When I ate the meat substitutes, it locked my bowels up like Fort Knox and caused me all kinds of problems. In October of 2017, I started to bleed out of my bowels. I had unknowingly developed cancer. When I reported the bleeding to the healthcare staff, I was denied treatment. They would not provide any medical evidence that would admit that I had developed cancer.
When I was transferred to the Illinois River Correctional Center on February 5th 2020, I immediately went to the Health Care Unit and reported the bleeding. Again, I was denied treatment, from February of 2020 to June of 2021.
In June of 2021, my daughter had gone to the governor’s Office of Constituent Affairs. When she explained that I was being denied the ability to shop weekly to sustain my health AND that I was being denied treatment for a double hernia, I was scheduled for the hernia surgery. Due to the pre-op blood test, the situation was taken out of IDOC’s control. Blood came back bad. Surgeon Erin Bailey requested a colonoscopy. It was this order that saved my life. I had the colonoscopy on June 21st 2021. The colonoscopy revealed Stage 3 Colon Cancer. Stage 3 Colon Cancer doesn’t happen overnight. I had had the cancer for a while. Dr. Bailey performed surgery and removed two large tumors from my colon. She then referred me to Oncologist Dr. Fishkin. Dr. Fishkin ordered twelve rounds of chemotherapy.
Every prisoner in A-grade is allowed to shop weekly at the prisoner commissary. Once my diet was denied, I used the commissary to survive. Once I arrived in Illinois River CC, this became a problem. Under Warden Clark’s reign, she could not, or would not, staff all four windows in the commissary to ring out sales. The commissary schedule went from a weekly shop to once a month. There was a $150 limit placed on food purchases. Now, we are in that situation again. On December 8th 2021, I returned to the Illinois River Correctional Center from chemotherapy. Dr. Osmundson saw me. He wrote a medical order, so that I could shop once a week to sustain my health. IRCC still serves me the same soy-laden food that gave me cancer. I don’t eat it. My weight during the chemo treatments has dropped fast. On December 10th, Health Care Unit Administrator Meeker signed off on the medical order to shop once a week. She sent it to the chief administrative officer, Warden Clark, to be approved. December 15th 2021, assistant Warden bordner told me that Warden Clark denied my medical order to shop once a week. Warren Clarke has placed me in a situation where I cannot Shop weekly to stay strong during chemotherapy. She states that I can eat the same food they gave me the cancer. Everyday, I am forced to decide between eating the state tray and feeding the cancer or starving. on December 5th, I was 204.6 lb. My last weigh-in on December 12th was 195.2 lb. Is this cruel and unusual punishment? I do not believe any reasonable trier-of-fact would not connect the dots here. I was healthy while I had the medical No-Soy diet. Within two years of the diet being denied, I developed colon cancer from eating the IDOC meat substitutes. I am denied the ability to shop once a week at the prison commissary. I am getting weaker, and chemo is only going to wear me down further.
