Man in prison for Milford prom day killing sues DOC over medical care
Christopher Plaskon, convicted in the 2014 prom day killing of Milford teen Maren Sanchez, filed a lawsuit this month against the state Department of Correction, alleging they have failed to address his severe stomach ailments.
Plaskon, 4 ½ years into a 25-year sentence for murder, seeks $300,000 in damages for multiple claims of deliberate indifference on the part of the correction commissioner, the warden of McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution and medical staff.
The handwritten 23-page suit outlines the months that Plaskon says he struggled to get treatment for severe and, at times debilitating, stomach problems that started in November 2018.
Plaskon, who is representing himself in the suit filed on Jan. 8, contends that he has suffers from severe stomach and abdominal pain, severe diarrhea and severe nausea, which has led to “significant weight loss, significant loss of appetite, significant loss of physical endurance, significant loss of physical strength and insomnia.”
Since the onset of his symptoms in 2018, Plaskon has requested help and seen a number of medical providers but has been given ineffective medications or waited long periods for follow-up visits, according to the lawsuit.
At least twice he was prescribed medicines that he said made his symptoms worse.
In March, he was authorized to see a gastrointestinal specialist at UConn Health, but would have to wait until non-emergency hospital trips resumed, Plaskon wrote in the lawsuit.
Once those trips resumed, Plaskon said he wrote to prison staff and was told he was still on the list and to reach out if his symptoms got worse, according to the lawsuit.
In late November, he said he suffered stomach pain so severe he was sent to the prison medial unit at 3 a.m. There it was discovered he had lost 17 pounds in the past four months.
Days later, Plaskon was seen by a new medical provider and was told he was scheduled to see a gastrointestinal specialist in January, but a subsequent COVID-19 outbreak at his correctional facility led to an indefinite moratorium on outside medical visits, he wrote in the lawsuit.
Through the pandemic, DOC has struggled with outbreaks at several of its correctional facilities. To date, department data show more than 3,300 inmates have contracted the coronavirus and 15 have died from it.
Plaskon wrote in the lawsuit that his family reached out first to the warden at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution and then twice to the commissioner’s office, butreceivednoresponsefromeither.
Citing the pending litigation, DOC officials said they could not provide additional information about the case.
Plaskon was sentenced in 2016 for stabbing Sanchez on prom day. The two were both 16-yearold juniors at Jonathan Law High School at the time. Authorities allege that Sanchez rejecting Plaskon’s prom invitation motivated the killing.