The year Charles Sullivan finally started the treatment that helped manage his agonizing digestive disorder was also the year he was arrested for the crime that would send him to prison for life. Now, 31 years and several surgeries later, he’s still struggling to find relief within the medical system that operates behind Texas prison walls.
A Marine vet in his early 70s, Sullivan’s health problems began in 1972, more than two decades before he was convicted in Galveston County. He’s been locked up hundreds of miles away from his family since 1994, his kids now raising children of their own. He keeps in touch with them over the phone, doling out what fatherly support he can. Often, they talk about his health.
When he entered the Texas prison system, he was prescribed omeprazole to deal with his gastroesophageal reflux disease. The medication eased his symptoms, which had gotten so bad at times that he’d told his youngest son he felt like he was dying. Even with the meds, Sullivan had a series of operations between 2000 and 2019 that a doctor told him were necessary, Sullivan said, due to damage from caustic stomach acid.
