MOTHER OF MURDERER DISABLED IN FAILED PRISON SUICIDE WINS SUIT.

Byline: Denny Walsh Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

At 28, Troy Christian Davey is a convicted murderer who emerged from prison in a vegetative state and will now receive about $1.5 million from California taxpayers as compensation.

His story is one of a prison health care system that went awry with tragic consequences that will require the state to support Davey for the rest of his life.

He entered the state prison system in December 1989 at age 21. He was emotionally unstable with low intelligence and a history of suicidal tendencies, but physically able-bodied.

He was released in March 1993 at 24. He is totally disabled, both mentally and physically. Simply and bluntly, he is curled up in a ball and helpless.

Davey's condition stems from an attempt to hang himself at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville and a lack of treatment for the severe brain damage and secondary catastrophic injuries that resulted, court records said.

He was given a ``compassionate release'' and lives in Sacramento with his mother, Alice Harris, who cares for him.

Recently, U.S. Magistrate John F. Moulds approved a settlement - valued at $1.5 million - of Harris' civil rights and medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her son against the Department of Corrections.

Harris, 45, will get $877,455 in cash plus $4,167 a month for the balance of Davey's life. A San Francisco physician and rehabilitation expert who examined Davey last year estimated his life expectancy at two-thirds that of a healthy male.

Out of the cash payment, Harris must take $500,000 for her attorneys, $92,511 to cover the suit's costs, $107,500 to satisfy MediCal and Medicare liens, and a $2,500 reserve for final expenses.

As a condition of the settlement, Harris and her attorneys agreed to dismiss as defendants three psychiatrists who saw Davey after he entered CMF and who documented their recognition of his potential to kill himself, two physicians responsible for his care following the suicide attempt, and the administrator of the prison hospital at the time.

With some exceptions, Harris said in an interview, the medical staff at CMF are ``nothing but a bunch of animals. They consider the inmates subhuman, the scum of society and not worth their efforts. It's just a storage place for bodies.''

``I've dealt with things that average people don't even dream of,'' Harris said. ``I never knew such apathy existed, and most people don't.''

To illustrate her point, Harris said it takes her about an hour to feed Davey, but at the prison hospital the staff allowed five minutes for the process. ``If he didn't eat, tough'' was the attitude, she said. ``He almost died of malnutrition.

``That hellhole isn't going to change until the public understands what goes on there and forces change.''

Davey, who had no prior problems with the law, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989 for the stabbing of one his friends. He was with two others at the time and did not actually wield the knife. He was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Federal court records provide the following account of Davey's ordeal in custody:

In September 1989 Davey, then in the Yolo County jail, swallowed acid-based cleanser and had to be hospitalized for a brief time. He was transferred to CMF on Dec. 1, 1989, for evaluation and eventual placement within the system.

On Jan. 15, 1990, he was assaulted by another inmate and a few hours later overdosed on anti-depressant pills he had hoarded. Unconscious, he was taken to a Vacaville community hospital where his stomach was pumped.

Upon his return to CMF, however, typical suicide-prevention steps were not taken. Such precautions include constant observation of the inmate, the use of a double sewn ``suicide blanket'' instead of standard bedding, and a cell without items usable in a suicide, such as air vents from which an inmate could hang himself.

Davey was given a sheet and blanket and placed in a cell with an easily accessible vent.

According to an account filed in Sacramento federal court by Harris' attorneys, ``Davey was pounding on his cell window'' on Jan. 19, 1990. ``He appeared intense and anxious. He said he was going crazy and was pleading to see a doctor.''

A passing medical technician stopped and told Davey he was not going to see a doctor that day. The technician then confirmed that with CMF's chief of psychiatry, who had seen Davey three days before and concluded he should be transferred to a state mental hospital, according to the attorneys' account.

An hour later Davey was found hanging with a sheet wrapped around his neck and tied to the air vent in the wall of his cell. He was rushed to VacaValley Hospital, where he spent three weeks lying in a coma in intensive care.

His condition improved somewhat with quality treatment over the next year and a half, but the doctor who ordered and supervised the treatment departed and, beginning in the fall of 1991, Davey was ``left to languish and severely deteriorate at the CMF hospital,'' Harris' attorneys said.

Today, his arms and legs are virtually paralyzed by the muscle contractures. His legs are permanently drawn up against his chest and abdomen. His right arm and hand are also contracted against his body. He has a very limited ability to speak and his speech is slurred and difficult to understand.