Feds Reach $600,000 Settlement with Former Ill Inmate

A former inmate forced to undergo double hip replacement surgeries will receive $600,000 in a settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Beginning in February 2009, Robert Hernandez writhed in pain for eight months before he was allowed to see a licensed physician. The unlicensed medical staff at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Central Florida ignored him, insisting he simply had lower back pain. . . . Hernandez was represented by Liah Catanese, an attorney with the Miami firm Alan Goldfarb P.A., as well as Randall Berg Jr. and Dante Trevisani of the Florida Justice Institute in his case under the Federal Tort Claims Act. . . . “I hope this case causes the BOP to re-examine the way that unlicensed medical providers are used and supervised in federal prisons,” said Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute.

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