Although the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation is supposed to post on its website disciplinary actions against doctors taken by other states, the state website contains no mention of the Michigan fine levied against Cullinan, who admitted no guilt but did not contest the charges.
Sue Hofer, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, confirmed that the Michigan disciplinary case should have been on the department’s website, and she thanked a reporter for bringing it to the department’s attention. She attributed the error to a software problem.
While she said that she could not discuss specific cases, Hofer said that any discipline taken in another state is supposed to trigger an investigation in Illinois, as is any settlement or judgment in a malpractice lawsuit. And so Cullinan should have faced an investigation pursuant to the $130,000 malpractice settlement reached last year and recorded on the department’s website.
The department looks for gross negligence, Hofer said, and the standard of proof is “beyond a shadow of a doubt” when it comes to disciplining a doctor, which is akin to “proof beyond reasonable doubt” in a criminal case.
More than 30 lawsuits have been filed against Cullinan in federal courts in Illinois during the past decade alleging substandard care, and several more have been filed in other states, including Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri. Most in Illinois were filed by inmates and have been dismissed. But several were not, and at least four cases involving Cullinan have been settled since 2004.
In Indiana, the family of Roy Wireman, Jr.
sued Cullinan and a county sheriff last year after Wireman suffered seizures and died after being refused Xanax, which he had been prescribed for more than a decade. Citing confidentiality agreements, Thomas Manges, attorney for Wireman’s family, declined to discuss the case or settlement details.
There is no mention of a settlement in Indiana on the Department of Professional Regulation website, nor does the website include any information on any cases settled this year. Settlement amounts are supposed to be posted within 60 days of settlement; the court docket shows that the Burris case from Sangamon County settled within the past month.
Several Illinois cases are pending. The family of Robert Awalt, who died last year in the Grundy County jail, sued Cullinan in September, saying that Awalt, an epileptic, died four days after his arrest after he suffered seizures. His family says that he was denied his epilepsy medication, even though his wife called the jail the night of his arrest and told officials that he needed prescribed anti-seizure drugs. When Awalt was booked, a jail nurse wrote on his chart that he needed the drugs, according to the lawsuit, and Cullinan reviewed the chart. In the hours before he died, both Awalt and inmates near him cried out for medical attention, according to court documents.
In Ogle County, Cullinan and the county sheriff are accused of causing the death of Patrick McCann, who died in jail last year after suffering second and third degree burns on 40 percent of his body.
McCann, who was mentally ill and taking psychotropic drugs, suffered injuries while trying to burn down his mother’s house. After 20 days in a hospital burn unit, he was sent to jail, according to a federal lawsuit filed in May by his mother. He died 10 days later.
James Macchitelli, attorney for McCann’s family, says in court documents that he believes McCann was never examined by a doctor while in jail. McCann’s injuries required EKG monitoring and daily blood tests that were not done, Macchitelli claims.
The coroner determined that McCann suffered a heart arrhythmia, but couldn’t say whether it was due to natural causes, an accident or something else. In an interview, Macchitelli said that McCann’s pain medication was switched from an opiate to methadone while he was in jail because methadone is cheaper. Methadone, which can be dangerous when combined with psychotropic drugs, killed McCann, Macchitelli says.
“My (medical experts) are sure: if he wasn’t taking methadone, he’d survive,” Macchitelli says. “What I’m looking at in this case is a medical doctor who’s all about money. Someone’s got to go forward with this guy and get a negligent homicide case. Would he be found guilty? I don’t know. But somebody’s got to wake someone’s ass up.”
Valerie McCann, Patrick McCann’s mother, sobs when she talks about what happened to her son, who was 34 when he died.
“When I think of the pain and suffering he went through, my mind blanks,” Valerie McCann says. “These are people that we knew, who we count on. And they let my son down. He would still be alive if he had been hospitalized.”
A core problem, according to the Burris lawsuit and a lawyer who represented Waggener in the Macoupin County case, is HPL’s business model in which the company is typically responsible for the first $50,000 spent on medical care outside jails.
That creates an incentive to keep desperately sick prisoners in lockups, says Grady Holley, a Springfield lawyer who represented Waggener.
“If you stop and think about it, it’s an incentive not to treat,” Holley says. “The way that you keep the money is that no one is ever sick enough to go to the hospital. It’s not only revolting, it’s also, from a doctor’s standpoint, unethical.”
Such contract provisions aren’t necessarily unethical, Stern said, but doctors have professional obligations.
“If they’re careless about sending people to the hospital, they’re going to incur costs somewhere along the line,” Stern said.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
