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Inmate: Prison’s medical care poor

Bellwood man says he struggled for weeks to receive attention for staph infection

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Bellwood man pleaded guilty to motor vehicle theft charges and was sentenced Friday to parole and credited with time served at the Blair County Prison since September.

After the hearing, Sean Buckmaster, 41, described a struggle for weeks to receive proper medical care for an infection that made it too painful to walk.

Public defender Julia Burke said it was crucial to schedule the plea hearing for Friday to allow Buckmaster to heal from an infection that started as strep throat and spread to infect his legs and spine while in prison.

Buckmaster said it got to a point where he had to be taken by wheelchair to the prison’s medical room.

“It started a month and a half ago or more. They gave me antibiotics, but then the pain spread to my legs. I wanted them to cut them off, anything. I kept saying something to them. They gave me antibiotics, but it wasn’t clearing it up,” he said.

The county’s contracted medical care company, PrimeCare, did not return a call on Friday.

Multiple attempts since February for medical treatment aside from the usual antibiotics culminated with efforts by his mother, Sherry Merritts.

“I said, ‘You people have to do something or he will lose his legs, then you will not like me very well,'” she said after the sentencing.

When examined two weeks ago at UPMC Altoona, he was treated with IV antibiotics and steroids, Buckmaster said.

“The nurse at the hospital said that was totally unacceptable what they did to him,” Merritts said.

After receiving prison calls from her son in pain, Merritts’ attempts to get information from prison nurses were initially blocked by federal confidentiality regulations.

“They more or less wouldn’t tell me a whole lot. I called the assistant warden. He said he’d check into it. Days passed, and Sean was still in the same condition. I called Sen. John Eichel­berger. He called the prison and told them to call me and let me know what was going on. They had no idea what was going on.”

Blair County Prison Warden Michael Johnston said inmate medical records are not shared with him.

“Typically they put in a request to see medical. A nurse would do an observation and see what the issue is. There are nurses available seven days a week, 16 hours per day. A doctor comes in once per week, and a physician’s assistant comes in once per week.”

Buckmaster pleaded guilty Friday to taking a speaker system from a vehicle in Bellwood with restitution of $200 to the victim; another incident of theft from a motor vehicle in Bellwood with $400 restitution; and receiving stolen property from Wal-Mart with restitution of $564.

He also pleaded guilty to a count of possessing drug paraphernalia and driving while his license was suspended.

Judge Daniel Milliron accepted the plea agreement on Friday, credited him with time served since September and sentenced him to parole for the remaining months of his maximum 23-month county sentence plus three years’ probation.

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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