Drug to treat prisoner's nosebleeds

COLUMBUS - It could be one of the costliest nosebleeds ever. At least at taxpayers' expense.

The State Controlling Board will be asked on Monday to approve $160,303 to pay for genetically engineered drugs used to treat a convicted murderer's chronic nosebleeds.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said three shipments of Factor IX, a special blood-clotting drug, were needed to treat the inmate, a hemophiliac.

The prisoner, who wasn't identified because of medical privacy restrictions, had undergone surgery in November at Ohio State University Medical Center to remove nasal polyps and to correct chronic sinusitis.

Prisons spokesman Joe Andrews said the prisoner's total medical bill will be substantially higher than $160,000 when everything is tabulated.

The prisoner, from Stark County, is serving 15 years to life, Andrews said. He will be eligible for parole in August 2003.

State Sen. Doug White, R-Manchester, a member of the Controlling Board and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said such a big expenditure is hard to accept.

"It'll be very frustrating to have to sit there and do that," he said. "I have never heard of anything of this magnitude.

"It's frustrating when you've got honest men and women out there, who punch a time clock to get a paycheck to pay their bills, and then we have to address things like this for some of our anti-social friends."

The tab for nosebleed drugs is one of the largest single medical bills the department has paid in recent years, Andrews said. But the case is not unique. Inmates, including other hemophiliacs, have racked up big medical bills in the past.