Sept. 07--Prison inmate Jason C. Smallwood, back in the hospital for what could be the third implant of a heart pump, has been turned down for a medical pardon.
However, Smallwood, a 27-year-old drug offender who has had several open-heart surgeries since going to prison in 2007, still has a conditional pardon request pending before Gov. Bob McDonnell.
His mother, Janice Vaughan of Portsmouth, was notified Tuesday by the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office that Smallwood was not eligible for medical clemency.
"This is just unbelievable. This is really just unbelievable," Vaughan said yesterday. "None of this makes any sense to me."
Taylor Thornley, a McDonnell spokeswoman, explained that, "The eligibility requirement for a medical pardon is for two doctors to determine that life expectancy is 90 days or fewer. This case did not meet that requirement."
Since 2009, surgeons at the VCU Medical Center have twice implanted a left ventricle assist device, or LVAD, in Smallwood's chest, Smallwood's family said.
They said he was recently sent from the Powhatan Correctional Center back to the hospital, where the LVAD was removed because of an infection.
He also is being treated for chronic kidney disease, they said.
fgreen@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6340
___
(c)2011 the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.)
Visit the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) at www.timesdispatch.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services