A former inmate at the Larimer County Jail filed a complaint against the county, the jail, medical providers and several officials alleging that he was denied medical treatment while he was incarcerated that ultimately led to him losing the use of his left arm.

Clifford Taylor, 28, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Colorado on Jan. 8, according to court documents obtained through an online records system. The complaint alleges medical negligence, civil rights conspiracy and discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The lawsuit asks for compensation, but does not specify how much.

Taylor is currently an inmate at the Sterling Correctional Facility, where he is serving time for two DUI convictions and one aggravated motor vehicle theft conviction, according to court documents.

Taylor was an inmate at the Larimer County Jail between March and October of 2018, the complaint said. During that time, Taylor sought emergency medical treatment for a “severely damaged” left arm. Taylor had a time sensitive antibiotic spacer implanted in his left arm that needed to be replaced, which medical staff at the jail knew about as they had access to his medical records from Denver Health, according to the complaint. However, jail staff refused to replace the spacer, the complaint alleges.

An antibiotic spacer is a device placed into the joint to maintain normal joint space and alignment, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The complaint does not say why Taylor had a spacer implanted.

“This negligence caused a severe and chronic bone infection called osteomyelitis in plaintiff’s left forearm and the infectious disease went untreated for months at the Larimer County Jail despite all of the written complaints that plaintiff filed with jail medical staff,” the complaint said.

The lack of treatment eventually led to losing the use of his left arm, the complaint alleges, causing him permanent disability.

After Taylor was released, he sought emergency medical treatment at Denver Health. He underwent seven surgeries in an attempt to repair his arm, but doctors at Denver Health were unable to restore the use of his arm and proposed amputation on several occasions, the complaint said.

The loss of the use of his arm will affect Taylor’s potential employment opportunities once he is released from prison and will require ongoing medical treatment, the complaint said.

Taylor is requesting compensatory damages from Larimer County and is seeking to prevent this from happening to other people in similar situations, the complaint said.

Along with the Larimer County Jail, the complaint also names the Larimer County commissioners and other county employees, the Larimer County sheriff and undersheriff, unknown jail medical staff and Armor Correctional Health Services as defendants.

Armor Correctional Health Services is a for-profit contractor that provides medical treatment for inmates at the Larimer County Jail. The company is based out of Miami and contracts with jails across the U.S.

The company has been the source of numerous complaints. The Flagler County Jail in Florida stopped contracting with Armor Health after a 23-year-old inmate fell into a coma and died in 2019. A criminal investigation into the death is ongoing, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. In 2018, an audit of the Milwaukee County Jail found that Armor Health had not been fulfilling staffing requirements in its contract during a time where several people died in the jail, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The case is pending.

At press time, a representative for Armor Correctional Health Services has not responded to a request for comment.

A request for comment from the Larimer County Jail was directed to the County Attorney’s office, which declined to comment on an ongoing case.

The case was assigned to Magistrate Judge Gordon P. Gallagher. On Thursday, Gallagher submitted an order, requiring Taylor to submit an amended prisoner complaint within 30 days.

In the order, Gallagher wrote that Taylor has to prove that a policy of Larimer County directly caused the violation of his constitutional rights and must prove that jail officials knew that delaying treatment would cause him substantial harm.