Brian Haney says he arrived at the Clark County Detention Center with an infection already eating into his right leg, and that jail medical staff responded with little more than acetaminophen and a tube of triple antibiotic ointment. Weeks later, his leg was bleeding. By the time surgeons operated, they had to amputate it.
Haney has now sued over the medical care he received while in custody, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
A Known Infection Met With Ointment
The lawsuit states Haney was brought into custody with what it calls a known, documented and already infected right-leg injury. His medical history included vascular issues, blood infections and prior right-leg surgery stemming from a 2022 motor vehicle accident, according to the Review-Journal's report on the filing. Despite that history and the visible infection, jail medical staff allegedly tried to treat him with nothing more than acetaminophen and triple antibiotic ointment.
“Leg Is Bleeding Like Pudding”
The complaint alleges that Haney's leg condition worsened while he was in custody.
Haney's right leg was ultimately amputated.
The lawsuit seeks more than $15,000 for each of four claims. Metro declined to comment on the pending litigation, and Wellpath did not respond to a request for comment, the paper reported.
A Pattern Beyond One Cell Block
Haney's case is not an isolated one. In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a federal lawsuit alleges an inmate named Aaron Hannon had several toes amputated after developing open foot wounds that went untreated during a 13-day jail stay, with staff repeatedly refusing his requests for hospital transport, according to WBTV. That lawsuit alleges a custom of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs at the detention center and is, per court records cited by the station, at least the eighth civil complaint specifically alleging substandard medical care there under Sheriff Garry McFadden's leadership.
In Oregon, a man named Victor Warren Stevenson was held in the Klamath County Jail for five days without medical care despite showing signs of a mental health crisis, hypothermia and physical deterioration, OregonLive reported. He arrived at a hospital critically dehydrated, in kidney failure and without detectable blood flow in his left leg, which was later amputated from the hip down. Stevenson filed a federal lawsuit against Klamath County, its sheriff, multiple deputies and the jail's medical provider in August, alleging civil rights violations and negligence.
Wellpath's Troubled Record
Wellpath, the company contracted to provide medical care at the Clark County jail, has faced scrutiny well beyond Nevada. In Monterey County, California, a third-party monitor found the jail's health care provider out of compliance with 43 remedial requirements, according to Monterey County Now. Wellpath faced a conditional fine for noncompliance, the outlet reported.
The company filed for bankruptcy in October 2024 after facing more than 1,400 lawsuits filed across the country, according to OPB. A federal judge in Texas subsequently granted a pause in all lawsuits involving Wellpath during the bankruptcy proceedings, the station reported.
Metro oversees the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, where Haney's ordeal unfolded. His lawsuit now joins a growing list of cases nationwide testing whether jails and their contracted medical providers can be held accountable when, as his attorneys put it, a detainee loses a limb to indifference.
