Over 11 months, he repeatedly complained to doctors and a physician's assistant that he had a growing lesion on his penis that he believed was cancerous. They refused to order a biopsy and told him, according to a report in his files, that he needed "to be patient and to wait."
Castaneda was given ibuprofen and an extra set of boxer shorts because the growth was bleeding. Three outside specialists recommended a biopsy, but Dr. Esther Hui, his treating physician, refused.
Castaneda filed a grievance saying he was in great pain and "in desperate need of medical attention."
In January 2007, another specialist recommended a biopsy, but instead, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordered Castaneda released, sparing the agency the cost of treating him.
Three days later, he went to a hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer. His penis was amputated, but it was too late; the cancer had spread. He died at his Los Angeles home in February 2008.
Also from the LATimes article:
But in a 9-0 opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court said federal law prohibited suits against the employees of the Public Health Service, which provides medical care at immigration facilities and at some federal prisons.
OK, so it's true that he was "A refugee from El Salvador who came to Los Angeles with his mother when he was 10," and "was convicted of a drug charge in his early 30s," but seriously--who deserves to have his health ignored like this?
Who can they sue? Certainly we can punish the people who refused him treatment, can't we? Why was treatment refused? And why is that law there in the first place? It seems to allow precisely what happened here.
What the fuck is wrong with our country and the people running it?
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