I continue to be denied medical care in the worst of ways at FCI Victorville II, in Adelanto, California. I started to experience severe sciatic nerve pain in July 2025, after I returned from an emergency room trip for congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, where they performed a cardioversion to correct my heart rhythm.
Despite multiple sick call requests since then, FCI Victorville II Health Services staff members have refused to investigate/diagnose and treat my pain with physical therapy and pain management (at an effective dose; Tylenol does not help and damages my liver.
The sciatic nerve pain became even more of a problem when I returned from a emergency room trip on November 26. I had developed a bed sore on my right hip that hurt when I sat on any chair, even with a blanket underneath. Now I have those sources of pain – sciatic nerve and hip – along with cyclical itching that may be from my kidneys, of which one has two cysts, as well as muscle rigidity at night time in my legs. And, I also have had severe pain after defecation since JULY 2020; yet I have not gotten a colonoscopy to determine the cause of the pain, which has only gotten worse.
It should also be noted that I have lost over 50 lbs. since December 2023 and my body is wasting away. I weigh less than 200 lbs. for the first since I was in the US Marine Corps in the late 1990s. Yet, the FCI Victorville II Health Services staff/providers fail to recognize the significance of this.
So, for the past month, I have been sleep-deprived because I can’t get a good night’s sleep due to the different pains I am experiencing.
On Tuesday, I was sent to the hospital (St Mary’s) emergency room. An emergency room doctor told me that my troponin-1 level (heart enzyme that indicates muscle damage) was 5,000, that I was sick, and that I would be admitted. A normal troponin-1 level is 0.04. And, a nurse also told me that I had kidney issues. Yet I was discharged.
This constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution.