Another Hays County Jail Inmate Fears Losing Use of Limb as He Waits for Medical Care

One building in the Hays County corrections complex (photo by Jana Birchum)

Hays County Jail administrators have been repeatedly accused of providing inadequate medical care to their inmates in recent years. In August of 2022, the Chronicle reported on the case of Ranulfo Benitez-Morales, who feared he would lose his leg after delays in treatment for a wound suffered during his arrest. A month later, we examined the case of Melvin Nicholas, who said he nearly died awaiting treatment for diabetes. In January 2023, we reported on John Thomas, who complained that authorities did not properly treat his liver disease.

Inmate Mark Suniga (courtesy of Belinda Rodriguez)

Now, a new case has surfaced which echoes these stories. Mark Suniga, 47, has been sitting in the Hays County Jail since August of 2022 after being arrested on a charge of indecency with a child. Suniga’s fiancée, Belinda Rodriguez, told us he is a diabetic who had already had two toes amputated and is unsteady on his feet. So, Rodriguez said, Suniga asked that he not be placed in a top bunk when he was incarcerated. But he was, and on March 20 of last year he faltered as he tried to climb down for an insulin shot, making a misstep and coming down hard on the heel of his left foot.

“He went to medical and told them he felt something pop and it was hurting him really bad,” Rodriguez said. “The nurse checked him out and said, 'You’re good, go back to your cell and I’ll put a word in to the doctor.’ But by the time he got to his cell, the bone had already punctured out of his skin and he was bleeding.”

Rodriguez said Suniga was taken to the hospital, where doctors placed two screws in the side of his foot in a multi-hour operation. He returned to jail several days later with a boot on the foot. He spent weeks trying not to place any weight on the foot but tripped again in late June and once more felt stabbing pain in his foot. Jail authorities sent him to get an X-ray, Rodriguez said, and it showed that the screws in his foot had loosened. The foot soon developed an abscess.

“So he went to see a doctor, another surgeon,” Rodriguez said. “And the surgeon told him that he would do a surgery within the next week, because he needed it done ASAP before the wound closed. He said he was gonna take the tendon and put it to the bottom of his foot and then he would at least have some movement. But the jail never approved the appointment for the surgery. I guess the doctor was too expensive. That’s what one of the guards told him – they didn’t approve it because it was too expensive.”

Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler told us in an emailed statement that the department is aware of Rodriguez’s allegations but is unable to comment because of federal law that restricts the sharing of confidential medical information.

Rodriguez said Suniga saw a third surgeon this February, and that by then the abscess had closed and the surgeon gave him two options: “Either put on a boot and he’ll never walk on that foot again. Or go with the surgery and reconstruct everything again because they waited so long to do the surgery,” she said. “But there’s been no word on any second surgery.”

According to Rodriguez, Suniga has been offered plea deals, which he has refused in order to clear his name in court. Suniga’s bond is set at $150,000, and Rodriguez estimated that he would need to raise $30,000, a sum he can’t afford, to be released from jail so he could seek medical care on the outside. His trial was reset for the second time on March 4. As he waits, he’s using a walker, keeping weight off his foot, and hoping the county will make a decision on a surgery.

“They should have provided it a long time ago,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if they’re not doing it because they want to wait for him to get out – because they’re not liable once he gets out. But I’m thinking about doing a lawsuit on them. I mean, he went in there walking and now he’s coming out and can’t use his foot? It just doesn’t make sense.”