ST LOUIS – A Missouri inmate is suing a doctor he claims failed to provide proper care following a knee replacement surgery.
Donald Cohen filed a federal civil rights action against Dr. Charles W. Chastain III on April 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri over allegations that Chastain failed to provide care to the inmate during a post-operative stay in the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center (ERDCC).
Chastain is a doctor hired by a private company, Corizon, and responsible for providing care to inmates, the suit states.
But, Cohen claims that within 24 hours after being discharged from Mineral Area Regional Medical Center, he suffered from excessive bleeding, which led to a blood transfusion.
"While being housed in the infirmary at ERDCC from April of 2014 to late June of 2014, Plaintiff experienced extreme and excessive bleeding to his knee which had surgery performed on it," the suit states.
"Defendant Dr. Chastain deliberately disregarded the immediate and serious health conditions and well-being of plaintiff," it further alleges, accusing the doctor of exhibiting deliberate and callous indifference.
Cohen claims that when he was transferred out of the ERDCC in late June of 2014, he was given a physical examination and was diagnosed as being anemic and having suffered extreme blood loss.
"As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Dr. Chastain’s deliberate indifference to plaintiff’s serious health needs, plaintiff suffered from extreme pain," according to the complaint.
Cohen is represented by James W. Schottel Jr. of Schottel & Associates PC in St. Louis.
The doctor has not yet filed a reply to the complaint.