A man who was in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and his wife recently filed a lawsuit against the United States government for allegedly failing to treat an infection.
Vijay Chowdhary and Margaret Chowdhary filed the lawsuit July 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
According to the lawsuit, the U.S. operates and controls the Federal Bureau of Prisons which is charged with maintaining custody of sentenced prisoners in its many correctional facilities in the US. The lawsuit said that the government is liable for treating Vijay Chowdhary negligently while he was in custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Residential Re-Entry Center of Miami.
“The U.S. contracted with certain health care providers including but not limited to those who negligently treated plaintiff while he was in the custody of Federal Bureau of Prisons and/or the the Residential Re-Entry Center of Miami,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the suit, Vijay Chowdhary surrendered to Maxwell Air Force Base Camp on July 14, 2014, but they failed to treat an infection and he was admitted to Baptist East Hospital on Aug. 26, 2014.
Chowdhary alleged that he had severe abdominal pain after getting a daily dose of aspirin, rather than properly getting a protein inhibitor for his "gastroesophagedal reflux disease, gastritis and dreadenitis and gastroparesis diagnosed in 2014."
According to the lawsuit, Chowdhary underwent an upper endoscopic procedure and it caused him to go into a coma the next day.
Before being released on April 4, 2016, Chowdhary developed bronchitis symptoms and started getting worse, but the doctors didn’t come to see him for two weeks prior to being discharged, according to the lawsuit.
The medical personnel told Chowdhary to see his own doctor in Palm Beach County, the lawsuit stated.
“When the plaintiff arrived at Palm Beach International Airport his breathing had worsened since he had not been discharged with oxygen,” the lawsuit said.
Chowdhary has been extremely ill since that time and has been required to see multiple physicians, according to the lawsuit.
“The plaintiff has no meaningful life to live at present and is suffering to the maximum level,” the lawsuit said. “All of these conditions exist through the present day.”
The lawsuit claims the defendant was negligent by denying medical treatment or failing to treat the plaintiff for his conditions while in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Residential Re-Entry Center of Miami.
Chowdhary is seeking compensatory damages in the amount of $750,421.36, costs of the lawsuit, interest, reasonable attorney fees and further relief that the court may see as proper.
The lawsuit added that Margaret Chowdhary claims “a consortium claim derivative of her husband’s claim against the United States of America and the Residential Re-Entry Center of Miami, Florida.”
“As a direct and proximate results of either and or both of the defendants acts and omissions and the resulting injuries of her husband, Vijay Chowdhary, plaintiff Margaret Chowdhary has in the past suffered and will in the future continue to suffer mental anguish and loss of services and companionship, comfort, society and attentions of her husband,” the lawsuit said.