CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Roane County man is suing the West Virginia's Regional Jail Authority, alleging that he developed a staph infection because medical staff did not change his ostomy pouch regularly during his incarceration this summer.

Roy Dennis, 43, of Spencer, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Roane Circuit Court. Dennis alleges that severe overcrowding at the Central Regional Jail in Flatwoods caused jail officials to neglect his medical needs.

Dennis underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his colon in August 2010 and was fitted with an ostomy pouch, a prosthetic device that collects waste diverted from the large intestine. Dennis said the bag is supposed to be emptied every other day, but that it was weeks at a time before jail medical staff emptied it out.

Dennis was incarcerated in August on a felony malicious-wounding charge. He was released in late October to undergo a medical evaluation.

He said he was released because he caught Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] after medical staff did not change his pouch.

"I've been hospitalized about 20 times since I've been home since October," Dennis said. "Doctors got me on eight antibiotics a day. I got pneumonia. I'm still not over it."

Calls on Friday to Larry Parsons, commissioner of the Regional Jail Authority, were not returned.

Before he went to jail, Dennis said, his ostomy pouch incision was about an inch in diameter. When he left the Central Regional Jail in October, he said, the incision had swollen to more than two inches.

"When I came home and took the bag off, it was just a raw, bloody mess," he said.

He filed several grievances with jail officials but was mostly ignored, he said.

"They told me, 'Have them bring your supplies from home,'" he said. "My wife lives an hour away, she can't afford the gas to bring me my supplies every other day."

When the staff did replace the pouch, he said, they outfitted him with the wrong type.

He alleges that, on one occasion, a medical staff member tried to push his exposed colon back into his body.

He said he also is prescribed a daily blood-pressure medication, which was not given to him regularly. He also is required to take two liters of oxygen a day, he said, but he did not receive any during his incarceration.

Dennis is set for a status hearing on Dec. 2 to determine if he is well enough to return to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence. He said he is scheduled to see two more surgeons after that date.

Earlier this month, state Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein told legislators the state's 10 regional jails housed 4,621 inmates -- 1,837 more than the jails were designed to hold.

Reach Travis Crum at travis.c...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.