A parolee has sued the state's prison director and staff of the Lincoln prison where he was held for not getting him medical help for an involuntary erection for nearly 24 hours.
A 30-year-old Lincoln man said he was serving a sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on July 8, 2015, when he developed an erect penis around 9 a.m.
Despite his efforts to get rid of the erection, it would not go away, his attorney, Matt Aerni, wrote in a lawsuit filed Friday in Lancaster County District Court.
After about an hour, the inmate told a prison caseworker, who said prison medical staff would be alerted. When he still had the erection and hadn't heard back from staff by 7 that night, he told a corrections officer.
He still didn't get medical help, so overnight he told another member of the prison custody staff, Aerni wrote. It wasn't until 4:10 a.m. that prison medical staff were contacted about his complaint of groin pain. After an evaluation, medical staff determined it wasn't an emergency and that he would need to wait until a prison nurse made the rounds.
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Later that morning, a nurse examined him, assessed a condition of priapism (described as a persistent and painful erection) and started the process of having him taken to an emergency room at a local hospital.
Aerni said his client underwent surgery that day, but his penis was permanently damaged because he wasn't treated sooner, he hasn't been able to achieve an erection since and experiences pain when he urinates.
The former inmate, who has been out on parole since April, sued the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, its director, Scott Frakes, and unnamed prison staff members for failing to take the matter seriously and treat his medical needs.
In the suit, Aerni sought general damages of "no less than $1 million" and accused them of acting with deliberate indifference to the inmate's serious medical need and of failing to train employees to act upon signs of serious medical needs.
He also sought punitive damages, alleging that what staff did constituted reckless indifference and a wanton disregard for the law and for the lives and safety of others.
"These actions and inactions of defendants should be punished, and an example should be made so that these actions and omissions are not repeated," Aerni wrote.
The Corrections Department has a policy of not commenting on pending lawsuits and has not yet responded in court filings.
The Journal Star has chosen not to name the inmate due to the sensitive nature of his injury. He went to prison on a 14- to 18-year sentence for attempted sexual assault in the first-degree.