Former Idaho prisoner sues IDOC, medical provider for delayed care on broken hand

(Idaho Statesman) — A former Idaho prisoner who once worked in construction has sued Idaho’s prison system and its for-profit private medical provider after his fractured hand was left untreated, alleging that the agencies’ “deliberate indifference” to his broken thumb caused permanent damage.

Bobby Templin’s thumb was fractured in January 2023 after a fight broke out at the Idaho State Correctional Center, south of Boise, where he was housed. Records obtained by the Idaho Statesman showed that it took several months for Templin to see a surgeon, despite his continual complaints about pain and pleas for help. By then, his broken hand “healed with a deformity,” his doctor wrote in a medical record.

The 14-page lawsuit alleged that prison and medical officials violated his Eighth Amendment right to be protected from “cruel and unusual punishment” and his Fourteenth Amendment right to receive adequate medical care while incarcerated.

“Bobby should not have had to wait seven months to see an orthopedic specialist,” his Boise-based attorney Jane Gordon wrote in the civil rights complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Idaho. “It was deliberate indifference to not seek (immediate) medical attention and to continuously delay and fail to schedule an appointment with a hand specialist.”

Gordon accused the administrators of the prison’s health care provider, Centurion Health, of failing to ensure Templin received care to treat his hand promptly. They also failed to provide him with access to physical therapy or proper medication, she wrote. The complaint was brought against the Idaho Department of Correction, Centurion and more than two dozen prison and medical employees, including IDOC Director Josh Tewalt.

Idaho privatized its correctional health care system decades ago. In 2021, IDOC entered into a five-year, $299.4 million contract with Centurion Health after state prison officials rejected renewing the agency’s contract with Corizon Health, which they’d had for more than 10 years.

Corizon by that time faced years of allegations of medical negligence in its contracts with prisons across the country. But Centurion has also had its fair share of lawsuits. The health care company has been sued by prisoners or their families over medical care in at least half a dozen states — including Idaho.

The Statesman has attempted to contact Centurion for several different stories in the past year and a half. The company has never responded. Requests to Centurion’s media line for comment for this story went unanswered.

Templin told the Statesman in an interview that he hopes his lawsuit will bring change, and raise awareness of its flaws for those who work in the prison system.

Templin said he thinks IDOC medical providers would have been more diligent about prisoners’ health care if they had put themselves in the prisoners’ shoes, or considered the kind of care they would want their own families to have.

“Maybe if their families had the same medical treatment as prisoners, they would understand that there’s something very wrong,” he said by phone. “Until then, people kind of just view people in prison as inmates. When you put inmate before person, then that’s what happens.”

Nurse says Templin ‘fell through the cracks’

For months, Templin said he sat in his cell, isolated and in pain, submitting dozens of health service request forms asking to see a doctor.

“My hand is in significant pain. My condition is worsening daily,” Templin wrote in one of the dozens of requests he submitted in 2023. “I’m scared my hand is sustaining irreversible damage.”

Templin’s federal lawsuit provides a clearer picture of the months following his injury, describing prison medical records and comments from staff who evaluated his hand. One nurse practitioner told Templin he “fell through the cracks somewhere,” according to the complaint.

On Jan. 29, 2023, Templin was in an altercation that escalated to involve roughly 20 prisoners. Templin said his hand broke when two IDOC guards dragged him backward down the hallway and placed him in a wristlock as they tried to contain the fight. IDOC denied his account and said Templin punched a wall in his cell.

A doctor employed by Centurion evaluated Templin’s hand two days later and confirmed that an X-ray showed a thumb fracture, according to the lawsuit.

The physician’s notes suggested Templin’s hand should be immobilized and said he needed to be referred to a “hand surgery/ortho asap,” according to the complaint.

Templin as of March has yet to receive the surgery.

The type of break Templin had, known as a Bennett or Rolando fracture, is “almost always operative,” said Dr. Jerry Huang, a Seattle-based orthopedic surgeon. Huang, a professor at the University of Washington’s orthopedics department who specializes in hand, wrist and elbow surgery, previously told the Statesman he’d recommend surgery for anything that is displaced by at least 1 millimeter. Initial imaging showed Templin’s fracture was displaced by 3.5 millimeters, according to the lawsuit.

If a fracture like Templin’s doesn’t heal properly, Huang told the Statesman it could lead to deformity and “persistent pain that may never go away.”

The following month after the fracture, Templin was seen by at least three medical providers employed through Centurion, and none of them checked to make sure he was seen by a specialist, according to the lawsuit.

Templin was told on Feb. 27, 2023, that an appointment had been scheduled, when, in fact, it took another two months for Centurion to schedule his appointment, records obtained by the Statesman showed. It took three more months for him to see an orthopedic surgeon, who suggested Templin wait to see whether the pain subsided before considering more invasive surgical options, according to medical records. Templin continued to file more requests for care and complaints of pain in prison.

By July 25, 2023, Templin was taken to St. Luke’s Clinic in Meridian. Dr. Dustin Judd, an orthopedic hand specialist, said Templin’s hand had “healed with a deformity,” according to medical records provided to the Statesman.

Months later, Judd discouraged Templin from surgery because of IDOC and Centurion’s “failure to ensure patients attend post-operative appointments,” according to the lawsuit.

“The weeks following his X-ray presented many opportunities for defendants to take Bobby to seek emergency medical treatment to save his hand,” Gordon wrote in the lawsuit. “Instead, they waited until his fracture was healed in a deformity before taking him to see a specialist.”

IDOC lawsuit alleges loss of income

Templin’s hand has continued to hurt. He told the Statesman on Monday that he’s been out of prison since mid-February and is living in North Idaho with his dad, where he’s working as an electrical apprentice.

Before going to prison, Templin worked as a heavy equipment operator and pipe fitter, but he said he was worried that type of work would be too demanding on his hand. He said his new job isn’t as labor-intensive compared with his construction work.

The lawsuit also noted the challenges he’d face in his previous line of work, the loss of income and the need for future medical treatment. He has a decreased range of motion and grip strength, according to the complaint.

Templin said he still deals with swelling and mobility issues, and he’s had to modify some of the work at his job to use his left hand more than his right. What scares him most, he said, is the possibility that the pain could get worse as he ages.

“I just hope that I’m able to make a living and always have my hand,” Templin said. “It’s just a bummer deal. I just wish that this never happened.”

Templin to face sentencing on battery charge

Templin was released from prison in February after serving three years on a felony possession of a controlled substance charge. But he could go back to prison next week.

Templin accepted a plea deal for an additional charge of felony battery against a correctional officer from the day of the prison fight, and faces up to five more years in prison. In January, he pleaded guilty to the felony. In exchange, he no longer faced a persistent violator enhancement charge, which can carry up to a life sentence.

Templin previously said that during the chaos of the fight, he didn’t realize the man was an officer but admitted and apologized in court for hitting him in the head. The officer wasn’t injured and didn’t require any medical attention.

His father bailed him out of the Ada County Jail after his prison sentence ended on a $20,000 bond. He’s expected to face sentencing on Tuesday, March 25.

His attorney also asked that Templin’s mental health be assessed as part of the evaluations done for sentencing because of his prolonged solitary confinement. Templin was released to the maximum security prison’s general population in November after nearly two years of isolation.

“I spent 668 days in isolation after this incident,“ Templin said in court. “I’m doing much better, but during that time, I did have quite the struggle that I’m still dealing with today.”

If he’s able to go home, Templin said he hopes to enroll in school to become a certified electrician. The program takes four years and 8,000 hours, which he said he’s already started working toward.

Templin’s been staying busy with work for now and said he went out four-wheeling with his dad last week. He said he’d like to see people in prison have access to the “medical care that they need and deserve.”

“You should be able to trust people that if you’re injured you’re going receive care,” Templin said, “and when you can’t do that, it questions the whole system entirely.”

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