OCALA - The Lake County Sheriff, Armor Correctional Health Services and eight correctional facility medical staff were named in a federal medical negligence lawsuit from a former Lake County Jail Inmate.
According to a complaint filed on April 8 in Ocala federal court, plaintiff Luke Tucker was the victim of an attack by another inmate at the jail in June of 2018. Tucker alleges that he visited the jail's medical facility to seek care for his injuries from the attack and was told he was uninjured then sent back to his jail pod.
Tucker suspected his jaw was broken and was allegedly not attended to by the defendants until his mother spoke with jail staff. The plaintiff says that the jail's medical staff ignored his pain despite x-ray evidence that his eye socket and jaw were fractured, refused to give him pain medication and did not accommodate foods that he could eat given his condition.
The plaintiff eventually underwent emergency surgery to fix his jaw.
The complaint states that defendant Armor Correctional Health Services has been named in multiple lawsuits alleging medical neglect.
The entire list of individual medical professionals named as defendants is: Jacqueline Nurse, ARNP; Wilma Cruz, RN; Cynthia Macias, LPN; April Schofield, RN; Dr. Dora Gaxiola; Shana Bock, RN; Lilliam Rojas, RN; and Amara Hosein, LPN.
The defendants are charged with deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Tucker is represented by the Florida Legal Advocacy Group PA of Ocala.