Initially believing that he may have been suffering from cataracts, Estes says that he realized something was all too familiar.
“The retina in my right eye became detached before because I used to box and I took too many blows to the head. That’s how I knew that the same thing was going on in my left eye,” he said.
Estes said three months would pass before an Ophthalmologist would confirm what he already knew; that the retina in his left eye was becoming detached, and he was in immediate need of emergency surgery. Yet another month would pass before the procedure was actually done, Estes said.
“The surgery was done by Doctor Broud in Baton Rouge at Lady of the Lakes Hospital and I stayed there a couple of days,” he said. “Then right before I was ready to leave, Dr. Broud comes in and tells me that I have to keep my head looking face down so my eyes could properly heal. But once they got me into the van, it was impossible.”
The officers who were escorting Estes decided to take him on a “rough ride” of sorts, taking the back roads which were dirt and gravel and marked with pot holes, he claimed.
“My retina detached on the back roads before I even made it back to the prison. The guards really fucked me up,” Estes claims.
According to Estes, Doctor Broud noticed the damage during his first follow-up appointment and reordered the surgery.
“Broud told me straight up that he thought I would end up blind because of the prison medical care,” Estes said. “And he wasn’t wrong.”
Now 61 years old, Estes claims that that he has never received any accommodations for his blindness, no brail, no special education for the seeing impaired, no nothing. “My friends lead me around most of the time, I use the stick, and learned to hold onto walls and count my steps to get around.” Additionally, he lives with another man in a tiny two-man cell that is no bigger than a mop-closet.
“I think this whole thing has been fucked up,” Estes said matter-of-factly. “I’ve been bitter and angry about it, but there isn’t much I can do.” The one thing he did do is file a Petition for Clemency, explaining President Obama his situation to President Obama and hoping for an early—”compassionate”—release.
“We’ll see what happens. If nothing else, I’ve got another three years to do, then I go,” Estes says. After giving it a little thought, he adds, “Well, I’ve been hearing that there’s a lot of changes coming in the BOP and one of the things they are talking about doing is changing the compassionate release program for real this time. So fuck, maybe if Obama denies my clemency petition I’ll file for one after all.”