A King County jury awarded over $52 million on Monday to a group of formerly incarcerated people who contracted active tuberculosis after the Department of Corrections allegedly ignored symptoms from someone who spread the disease to over two dozen others.
The outbreak caused catastrophic damage" in 2021, when 244 people contracted latent tuberculosis and 27 people contracted active tuberculosis in the Clallam Bay and Stafford Creek corrections centers.
It was the largest tuberculosis outbreak in the state in 20 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the Department of Corrections had suspended annual tuberculosis screening and redirected its resources toward COVID-19 response, delaying diagnoses and facilitating transmission.
Many of those who contracted active tuberculosis suffered lengthy isolation, broken ribs from coughing spasms and double-digit weight loss, according to the lawsuit filed in 2024 on behalf of the incarcerated people who contracted the disease.
One incarcerated person died by suicide during extended solitary confinement and another fell into a vegetative state after tuberculosis spread to his brain and spine, according to the lawsuit. One person carried the disease home and unwittingly spread it to his infant daughter.
Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium that usually attacks the lungs, causing symptoms including coughing, fever, night sweats, chest pain and weight loss. People with latent tuberculosis have no symptoms and cannot spread it to others, but without treatment, up to 10% of infected people will develop active tuberculosis.
Patient zero, a plaintiff named Dennis Oya, had symptoms that went ignored for months by the department, according to the lawsuit. Despite knowing from medical records that he had latent tuberculosis, the department skipped an X-ray in 2021 and delayed another in 2022. X-ray testing is the only way to detect whether someone with a history of latent tuberculosis is carrying active tuberculosis.
The lawsuit claims Oya repeatedly informed medical staff of his condition, and at one point was told it was just acid reflux. He was moved between facilities and housed with other people, spreading the disease in two prisons. The Department of Corrections' actions amounted to "gross negligence," lawyers alleged.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries fined the department over $80,000 for putting its workers at risk during the outbreak. Stafford Creek was hammered by state investigators for flouting pandemic safety measures, including masking. An investigation by the state cited the agency for a “willful serious violation,” finding failures to enforce distancing measures and ensure that staff members were wearing masks.
The lawsuit alleges the Department of Corrections also failed to timely diagnose people who started showing symptoms.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs alleged Oya first informed medical staff of a cough in December 2019, and requested emergency medical help a month later. He was told to rest, according to the lawsuit.
In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began, an X-ray showed signs of tuberculosis and Oya told staff he was coughing violently, but he was returned to the general population. He was in and out of medical visits for the next year with a chronic cough, and in May 2021 was transferred from Clallam Bay to Stafford Creek.
That August, the Department of Corrections identified two cases of tuberculosis at Clallam Bay. Despite the pandemic, Oya was returned to general population without a mask in 2022, according to the lawsuit.
The department conducted an X-ray in January 2022 and determined Oya had active tuberculosis. A lab test confirmed it days later, according to the lawsuit. By May 2022, there were 11 active tuberculosis cases.
Award amounts to individual plaintiffs were between $200,000 and $5 million.
Micah LeBank, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that "a prison sentence is not a sentence to suffer preventable disease."
"The State controls where these men live, where they sleep, and whether they receive medical care," LeBank said. "They cannot simply walk out and find another doctor. Dennis Oya repeatedly asked for help, but DOC failed to recognize and treat his tuberculosis. That failure had devastating consequences for these men.
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