CHEYENNE - A few weeks ago, the state of Wyoming paid $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit in which an inmate at the state prison at Rawlins charged he had been denied adequate medical care.

This week, another inmate has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that he, too, was denied adequate medical treatment by the same doctor and private medical services company at the Rawlins prison.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, inmate Craig Blumhagen, 50, charges that medical staff at the Rawlins prison refused his requests for treatment of pain and vomiting he suffered over several months in 2003.

Blumhagen names Dr. John Coyle and Correctional Medical Services, a Missouri company, as defendants in the case, together with state corrections department personnel. Correctional Medical Services held the contract to provide medical services at the prison for six years before losing the contract to a competitor last summer.

Blumhagen's lawsuit charges that Coyle began prescribing Blumhagen daily doses of ibuprofen for treatment of back pain in 1999, at which time Blumhagen weighed about 150 pounds.

In May 2003, according to the lawsuit, Blumhagen told Coyle and others that he was experiencing nausea and abdominal pain. The lawsuit states that a nurse at the prison told Blumhagen in August 2003 that Coyle wasn't going to treat his pain and that he should, "grieve in your heart and get over it."

By December 2003, the lawsuit claims, Blumhagen was down to 110 pounds and frequently vomiting brown material that looked like coffee grounds. The lawsuit states that Coyle noted that month that Blumhagen's request for narcotic pain medication was evidence of "continued drug-seeking behavior."

Blumhagen is serving prison time on drug charges out of Laramie County.

The lawsuit states that Blumhagen collapsed in late December and that a guard in the prison infirmary called for an ambulance to take him to the emergency room at Memorial Hospital in Rawlins. A surgeon at the hospital determined that Blumhagen was suffering from severe ulcer, the lawsuit states.

Medical staff at the hospital transfused Blumhagen with red blood cells to raise his hemoglobin level before surgery to address the ulcer. The lawsuit says hospital staff told Blumhagen that his long-term use of ibuprofen was the probable cause of his ulcer and that he could no longer use such medications.

Bruce Moats, a Cheyenne lawyer representing Blumhagen, said Friday that prison inmates are incarcerated to serve their time, "not to be denied proper medical care when they get sick."

"The care that my client has received did not live up to the standards of humanity and decency required by the law, and adhered to by the people of Wyoming," Moats said.

Last month, the Wyoming attorney general's office approved payment of a $50,000 state settlement to Salvatore Lucido, a former prison inmate who blamed Coyle and CMS as well as state corrections department for the loss of his lower right leg.

Lucido claimed that medical staff at the prison delayed taking him to a hospital for treatment of sores on his right foot. He claimed that medical staff tried to delay getting him treatment at an outside hospital because they hoped he would be released from prison before it was necessary to provide him with costly outside medical care.

Lucido's lawsuit stated that he was taken to a hospital "after his foot literally exploded from the infection and swelling." His lower right leg was amputated on May 2, 2003.

John Robinson, a Casper lawyer who represented Lucido, said early this month that his client had also reached a confidential settlement with Coyle and CMS. "We were very pleased with the result," Robinson said.

Coyle and CMS have not yet filed a response to Blumhagen's lawsuit. Casper lawyer Scott Ortiz represented the doctor and the company in defending Lucido's lawsuit. Moats said he understands Ortiz is also working on Blumhagen's lawsuit. A call to Ortiz's office on Friday was not returned.

Blumhagen's lawsuit names Scott Abbott, former warden at the Rawlins prison, as a defendant. Abbot is now working in an administrative post in corrections in Cheyenne. Abbott declined comment on Blumhagen's lawsuit on Friday.

Abbott said Blumhagen was originally sentenced to prison from Laramie County on drug charges in 1999. Abbott said he's scheduled to be released in 2009.

An attempt to reach Attorney General Pat Crank, whose office generally defends state officials against civil lawsuits, for comment Friday wasn't immediately successful.