Inmate: Doctor Removed Mole With Lighter, Clip -- Allegations Are Listed By Women Prisoners In Purdy Lawsuit

The doctor at the state's only all-women prison recently used a

Bic lighter and a paper clip to burn a discolored mole off the thigh of a prisoner, according to allegations filed yesterday in U.S. District Court.

After he burned off the mole, Dr. Phillip Stubenrauch said, "I guess I really should have done a biopsy of that," according to the affidavit of inmate Sherryl Brongil.

Brongil said her leg later became infected at that spot.

A copy of Brongil's grievance, filed the day of the alleged incident in June, was among the papers filed yesterday as part of a class-action lawsuit.

The inmates' suit alleges that conditions at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, near Purdy, Pierce County, constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. It asks the court to find the facility's health-care system inadequate.

The newly filed papers list several other examples of treatments described by the inmates' lawyers as abusive and bizarre.

The lawyers allege that a number of women are afraid to be treated by Stubenrauch, who recently was promoted to the position of prison medical director.

Assistant State Attorney General Dan Judge, who represents the state Department of Corrections, defended Stubenrauch as a fine physician. He said Stubenrauch was perfectly capable of handling the needs of inmates at Purdy, which currently holds about 350 women.

When contacted about the allegations, Stubenrauch refused to comment on them.

The papers filed yesterday were in support of a motion to force the state to speed up its production of documents the inmates need to prove their allegations, according to their attorney, Pat Arthur. Health-care conditions at the prison present an immediate threat to the inmates' safety, Arthur contended in court papers.

Among the other allegations disclosed yesterday:

-- Stubenrauch attempted to give one inmate a rectal examination - without explaining what he was doing - before he would permit her to have extra pillows to put under her hips while she slept. The inmate, who bruised her hips, tailbone and spine in a car accident in 1981, previously had been allowed to have the pillows. When she refused to allow the examination, Stubenrauch denied her the pillows, causing her pain when she slept.

-- Stubenrauch told another inmate that her heavy vaginal bleeding was normal, even though she had been bleeding abnormally for 27 days a month since she had a conal biopsy last July. A conal biopsy removes a piece of the cervix to test for cancerous cells.

-- Acting against the advice of a surgeon, Stubenrauch performed a rectal and vaginal exam on another inmate who was still healing following corrective surgery to repair holes in the wall between her vagina and rectum.

Judge said he hadn't been able to fully review all of the allegations against Stubenrauch but emphasized the state has "full confidence in his abilities to see and treat patients at WCCW."

Judge also stressed the institution has been working for almost a year to listen to inmate complaints, deal with problems, improve the level of services, and allow inmates to be seen on the same or next day following a request for a doctor.

Lawyers for the inmates say serious problems continue to exist. They contend, for example, that the state has not responded to concerns raised last month that two inmates may have meningitis, an acute infectious disease. They also said the state has not responded to recent reports about an outbreak of hepatitis at the prison.

The papers also include a health-services audit conducted last November by an expert commissioned by the prison. The audit warned

the state would be vulnerable if a lawsuit were filed challenging health-care access and quality of care.