Urgent: POW Jerry Duval is Going Blind from Neglect

October 17, 2013 | Talana Lattimer

Medical Cannabis patient Jerry Duval is serving a 10-year sentence for cultivating cannabis under Michigan’s medical cannabis laws. While we all know 10 years is a ridiculous sentence for a medical cannabis patient, unnecessarily losing his eyesight because of neglect is inhumane.

When Jerry was a young boy he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. This later forced him to undergo a dual organ transplant (kidney-pancreas) and left him with diabetic retinopathy which is a condition related to his eyes. He also has heart problems and glaucoma as a result of the damage done by juvenile diabetes.

Within a month of his arrival at FMC Devens, supposedly a medical prison that was capable of dealing with serious health issues like Jerry's, he was denied his anti-rejection medication and his eye had hemorrhaged from lack of care. It's been five months since Jerry arrived at FMC Devens. When his eye first hemorrhaged, he was told he would be sent to an outside doctor because they did not have the proper facilities to treat his eye. He has not seen that doctor yet, four months later.

Yesterday, unsurprisingly, his eye finally gave out and hemorrhaged worse than it ever has before in his life. Jerry and his family are very concerned that the total loss of vision in his right eye, caused by the hemorrhaging, will be permanent if he does not receive care immediately. In fact, it may already be too late.

Jerry needs your help now. Please send a fax today to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, the man supervising Jerry’s care in prison demanding Jerry get the treatment he needs.