From Truthout:
On April 5, 2012, three years into his stay at Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP) in Delano, California, Silus Valson sought medical attention for severe headache, stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting and dark urine. The next day, he was transferred to the local hospital’s intensive care unit for impaired heart function.
He suspects his medical issues resulted from drinking water with high arsenic levels at KVSP between 2009 and 2012. “Drinking that water, it wears down your body, and we’ve been drinking it for years,” Valson says.
He says that prison officials informed incarcerated people about the water contamination but failed to act. “The real issue is that they had enough information to tell us that the water source wasn’t safe, but they didn’t give us an alternate water source. They knew that over time this was going to be a health issue,” Valson told Truthout.
A year before his 2012 trip to the ICU, Valson was diagnosed with H-Pylori, a bacterial infection that can be passed from person to person or through drinking water. Prison medical staff sent him back to the general population after prescribing medication for the infection. A few months later, a nurse wrote in his medical file that he had developed Mees’ lines — a telltale sign of arsenic poisoning — on his finger and toe nails. According to court documents, following his ICU stay and return to KVSP, Valson’s skin began to fall off. Continue reading >>>
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