"You don't want them to remove your schnuts, trust me."
Posted on 02/21/2008 9:40:50 PM PST by SmithL
LOS ANGELES -- An immigrant who sued state and federal authorities for failing to diagnose and treat his penile cancer in Southern California jails and detention centers has died of the disease, his lawyers said Thursday.
Francisco Castaneda, 36, died Saturday at his Los Angeles-area home, a year after doctors amputated his penis to try to stop the spread of the cancer, the attorneys said. They said they would go ahead with the lawsuit, filed Oct. 31 in federal court in Los Angeles.
Castaneda left his native El Salvador with his mother during a civil war and entered the United States illegally when he was 10. He was convicted in 2005 of possessing methamphetamine and spent eight months in jail, then was held in immigration detention centers in San Diego and San Pedro while awaiting proceedings on deportation and his claim of political asylum.
According to his lawsuit, a doctor first noticed a growth on his penis in December 2005, while he was in state custody, and ordered further tests that were never conducted. Multiple lesions developed and Castaneda's pain increased while he was in immigration detention centers, but doctors and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officials turned down medical staff recommendations for a biopsy and surgery, the suit said.
A doctor finally ordered a biopsy in late January 2007 and said Castaneda probably had cancer, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him 11 days later rather than having him treated, the suit said. He underwent the biopsy and amputation at a Los Angeles County hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I’ve never known anyone who has had penis cancer. Amputation, it says. Yikes.
OMG.......never heard of this before.
Eventually, the term “tough shit” will come into common usage, making into America is not and never has been a gold plated health and welfare plan.
To put it another way, if he was back in El Salvador, he would have died at home, there would be no lawsuit.
Sheesh. What a way to go.
Me, I’d rather go like Nelson Rockefeller.
OTOH, I agree with you, but if you got a guy in custody, you have to take care of him. You gotta feed him, you gotta give him medical care, etc.
Penis cancer? Life’s a b-tch and then you die. It’s just that some are involved in pretty illegal things as well.
Sometimes life deals it’s own poetic justice.
I tried very hard to give a rodent’s rectum about this for about five seconds and failed utterly.
The question I have is who’s going to pay for the treatment?
In fact, who’s paying for his damn lawyer sueing?
LOL.
It is not sue a ble.
Why couldn’t he seek treatment once released?
I am sure a whole lot of convicts go without healthcare in the slammer.
Heck civil citizens go without proper care depending on where and what is available and their ablility to find resources in time.
Sounds like the penile system failed him.........
Had that happen to an Uncle-in-law. He had a partial amputation....I have no idea what that actually entailed.
Sheesh, I’m going to have to go to bed not knowing if this thread will even be here in the morning.
FYI
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Cancer - penis
Address:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001276.htm Changed:10:38 AM on Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Uhg. (good one)
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