Inmate Claims Jail Withheld Aids Treatment Doctor, Nurse Say They Did Everything They Could, But Man Was Uncooperative

A Spokane County Jail inmate who has AIDS claims the lockup’s medical staff endangered his life by withholding treatment for more than a month.

Lester VanDixon, 45, said Tuesday he was ignored for so long he finally asked a judge to order the jail to send him to a specialist.

“They treat me like I’m guilty already,” said VanDixon, who is charged with possession of stolen property.

The jail’s doctor and nursing supervisor say they’ve done everything possible to help VanDixon and accuse him of refusing their assistance until recently.

“I can tell you that Mr. VanDixon got all of the treatment he would allow us to give him,” said Dr. James Baird, the jail physician. “This guy has manipulated the system.”

The controversy began June 27, the day after sheriff’s deputies arrested VanDixon in north Spokane. Deputies say he tried to use a stolen credit card to rent a Cadillac.

VanDixon, a Texas resident passing through town, couldn’t raise the $5,000 bail that would have let him out of jail until his trial.

He said he told jail nurses about his condition and asked them to get him some medicine.

VanDixon said he contracted HIV from tainted blood he received during elective surgery nearly a decade ago and developed full-blown AIDS in 1989.

He claims the jail nursing staff and Baird refused to treat him, even withholding pain medication that eases headaches caused by AIDS-related brain tumors.

“When you get in here and you can’t get help, it gets worse,” said VanDixon, who was covered with a rash Tuesday and had an open sore above his left eye.

But VanDixon was uncooperative when Baird and nurses tried to find out about his medical history, according to the doctor. That complicated efforts to prescribe a treatment, Baird said.

VanDixon also refused some therapies and a referral to another doctor, Baird said. “He told me he just wanted to manage his pain, to be kept comfortable.”

Even then, VanDixon sometimes declined to take pain medications and harassed nurses, the doctor said.

“If that’s nontreatment, then I guess I’m guilty,” Baird said.

Nearly a month after his arrest, Baird said VanDixon agreed to see Dr. Dan Coulston, a Spokane AIDS specialist.

A few days later, Baird said, he received a call from Karen Lindholt, VanDixon’s public defender.

She wanted to know why VanDixon wasn’t receiving treatment and why his appointment with Coulston wasn’t for another two weeks, Baird said.

“I started making noise,” Lindholt said in an interview this week. “I just wanted my client to see an AIDS specialist. Dr. Baird is not an AIDS specialist.”

Baird said he explained to Lindholt that her client was in no immediate danger and that Coulston was on vacation.

“I told her it was a complicated case, and that I wanted the doctor’s expertise, not his nurse practitioner’s opinion,” Baird said. “I said he could wait a week. He was not in imminent danger of croaking.”

Lindholt disagreed and took the matter to court.

On Aug. 12, Superior Court Judge Richard Schroeder ordered jail nurses to take VanDixon to Coulston’s office immediately.

He was examined and sent back to the jail with a prescription for nine different AIDS drugs.

VanDixon, who recently served time in a Texas prison for forgery, said he still isn’t receiving proper treatment. He claims jail nurses often forget some of his pills and sometimes don’t follow his medication schedule.

“He has access to medical care, and we are providing it to the best of our ability,” said Margaret Triplett, the jail’s nursing supervisor.

The Spokane AIDS Network is monitoring VanDixon’s case.

Interim executive director Anne Stuyvesant said it’s not the first time a Spokane County Jail inmate with AIDS has complained about his care.

“We had a very similar case three years ago, where a man complained of failure to get medication and failure to get treatment,” Stuyvesant said. “There seems to be an attitude of insensitivity. One nurse told me that AIDS patients are just going to die anyway.”

VanDixon said he plans to plead guilty to the stolen property charge soon so he can start serving his time right away, then get treatment on the outside.

“I just hope they don’t keep me here for my sentence,” VanDixon said. “It’s almost a death sentence.”

, DataTimes