Alleged improper medical care at the Island County Jail has prompted a former inmate to seek damages of more than $10 million from the county.

The Island County Commissioners denied Richard Pallaske’s $10.2 million claim Monday during a regular meeting. Pallaske is currently incarcerated at the state prison in Monroe for drug and theft offenses.

Pallaske, a former Oak Harbor resident, was held in Island County Jail in early November 2003 for methamphetamine-related charges. He claims that during the raid on his residence he was exposed to chemicals that resulted in blurred vision and a stinging sensation in his left eye.

He was reportedly transported to Whidbey General Hospital and received treatment on Nov. 3, 2003. The doctor scheduled a follow-up appointment with a Coupeville ophthalmologist two days later.

When Pallaske asked a jail nurse about his appointment, she told him it had been canceled, Pallaske wrote in the statement of claim for the U.S. District Court lawsuit he filed last month.

“She told me there was no appointment because she had canceled it because she felt it wasn’t necessary,” the plaintiff wrote. “I then told her that the emergency room doctor thought it was necessary enough that she had made the appointment herself. The jail nurse then told me that the appointment was too expensive and the jail was not going to pay for it.”

Pallaske, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, wrote that his eye began to discharge blood nightly after the jail’s doctor told him to use prescribed eye drops. The doctor allegedly said at the time that the inmate’s vision would “return to normal within the next few weeks.”

On Dec. 5, Pallaske claimed he woke up to find all vision gone in his left eye.

“I believe that this inaction to my medical needs was cruel and unusual punishment resulting in the loss of use of my left eye and causing permanent disfigurement. This is a violation of my 8th Amendment right,” he wrote, later in the document positing that the cancellation of his eye appointment also violated his 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment rights.

The $10.2 million claim was filed on Nov. 1 of last year.

Betty Kemp, county risk management director, wrote in a memo dated Monday that, after a careful and thorough review, it “was determined there was no request by the doctor for a follow-up visit.”

“Island County Jail followed all medical directions assuring that Mr. Pallaske received medications as prescribed,” Kemp wrote. “In addition, there is documentation that the damage Mr. Pallaske sustained was the result of an accident caused by Mr. Pallaske while handling noxious chemicals.”

Kemp said the lawsuit has been forwarded to the Washington Counties Risk Pool, an organization that provides comprehensive and economical risk coverage and helps decrease costs incurred in the managing and litigation of claims.

With a $50,000 deductible for litigation, Kemp said the county does not take claims lightly.

“We really do our homework,” she said of the extensive claim investigation.