Former Syracuse lawyer Martin Rothschild being handcuffed at his 2013 sentencing.

(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Former Syracuse lawyer Martin Rothschild has to use a catheter for the rest of his life because of the medical treatment he received in state prison while serving a sentence for child pornography, he claims in a lawsuit.

Rothschild, 63, is suing the state, claiming guards at Elmira Correctional Facility ignored his pleas for help in 2013 when he suffered symptoms of a urological problem, the suit said. He was urinating frequently and suffered shaking, severe pain, spasms in his abdomen, nausea, weakness and dehydration, the suit said.

Guards ignored his complaints until the next day, when the medical staff attributed his symptoms to Crohn's disease, the suit said.

Rothschild's lawsuit makes these further allegations:

Guards continued to ignore his complaints for two more days, until they took him to the prison infirmary with a hard and distended lower abdomen and frequent incontinence. He was then taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors determined he was retaining urine in his bladder because of a blockage.

Rothschild had developed deverticuli of the bladder because it remained full and distended for so long. He was discharged back to Elmira on a catheter.

Two months later, Rothschild underwent surgery at the hospital, but it did not restore his ability to urinate. He was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility in Northern New York.

The catheter was not maintained according to medical standards at Clinton. He was admitted to the prison infirmary in April 2014 for treatment of a kidney infection and sepsis related to the placement of the catheter.

While he was in the infirmary, the catheter fell out because the line was rotten. A nurse took 30 to 40 minutes to insert a new line. Rothschild contends it was not inserted properly.

In July 2014, lab tests showed he was suffering from kidney damage, with low creatine levels, reduced platelet counts and a high white blood cell count.

Rothschild ended up at a hospital in Champlain with a fever of 104 degrees in August 2014. He was treated for septic shock from E. coli bacteria related to a catheter infection. He was discharged from the hospital a week later.

The poor medical care Rothschild received in prison left "severe and permanent damage to his bladder," the lawsuit said.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released a written response today: "DOCCS strives to provide all those in its custody medical care to the community standard, including outside medical visits when necessary and appropriate."

A state official said he couldn't comment further because the case is the subject of a lawsuit.

Rothschild was released from prison on parole in June of this year after serving nearly three years. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2013 for storing child pornography on the social media site Tumblr. Prosecutors said he had at least 30 videos of child porn, and that he allowed them to be shared with other people.

Rothschild was a longtime personal-injury lawyer who frequently appeared in his own TV commercials. He was arrested in February 2013 after state police raided his home and office and seized his computers.



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