On September 6, 2019, the Magna Law Firm brought suit against several doctors, a Minnesota jail, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections for the premature death of Elbert Larkins. The core basis of the suit is that for a period of over two years, Mr. Larkins, who was incarcerated at the time, complained to doctors of classic prostate cancer symptoms and instead of addressing these complaints by urologic referral, doctors essentially ignored them. From February 2015 to March 2017, Mr. Larkins repeatedly told doctors that he was seeing blood in his semen and urine and that he was having difficulty urinating. These doctors responded to his complaints by placing him on unnecessary antibiotics and encouraging him not to masturbate so roughly. When Mr. Larkins was finally seen by a urologists just a few months before his prison release date, it was determined that he had stage 4 prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bone. Mr. Larkins died fifteen months later. The lawsuit contends that had doctors timely and adequately addressed Mr. Larkins’s complaints by referring him to a urologist, they would have diagnosed Mr. Larkins’s cancer much sooner and his life could have been saved.
A recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses the case. The link is below.
The Magna Law Firm represents individuals that have been deprived of appropriate and necessary medical care while incarcerated. For more news and information visit our Facebook and Twitter pages.
