Opinion ID: 2981712
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Denial of Breast Pump Claim

Text: Plaintiff’s second deliberate indifference claim is premised on Defendant’s denying her a breast pump to allow her to express her breast milk postpartum. Defendant, based on its policy, refused to allow Plaintiff to take the breast pump given to her by Hospital staff back to the jail with her. This is because under Defendant’s policy, a breast pump was not considered a “critical medical device.” Inasmuch as this is a typical interference with treatment claim, Plaintiff’s breast pump claim fits neatly into the framework of our medical-needs jurisprudence. For a medical-needs claim, such as this, the objective component is satisfied by showing the existence of a “serious medical need,” which we have defined as either “‘one that has been diagnosed by a physician as mandating treatment or one that is so obvious that even a lay person would easily recognize the necessity for a doctor’s attention.’” Harrison, 539 F.3d at 518 (quoting Blackmore, 390 F.3d at 897). As before, a plaintiff can prove the subjective component by proving that the defendant had knowledge of the substantial risk, recognized the serious harm that such a risk could cause, and, nonetheless, disregarded it. Id. This knowledge can be inferred from the obviousness of the harm. See Hope, 536 U.S. at 738. In granting summary judgment to Plaintiff on this claim, the district court relied on our opinions in Byrd v. Wilson, 701 F.2d 592 (6th Cir. 1983), and Boretti v. Wiscomb, 930 F.2d 1150 (6th Cir. 1991), to conclude that the Hospital staff’s provision of the breast pump amounted to the breast pump being prescribed (i.e., a diagnosed medical need), and therefore Defendant was deliberately indifferent in refusing it to her. Villegas, 789 F. Supp. 2d at 916–17. These cases are, however, distinguishable. In No. 11-6031 Villegas v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville Page 22 Byrd, we found that a pro se prisoner-plaintiff had made out a non-frivolous claim where after being “diagnosed as having post-hepatitic type cirrhosis of the liver for which medication and a low-sodium, high-protein diet were prescribed,” two days elapsed before the prisoner was able “to get his medicine and his diet.” 701 F.3d at 594–95 (emphasis added). In Boretti, a pro se prisoner-plaintiff had been treated for a gunshot wound three weeks prior to coming to the jail and had been given a treatment plan, which included daily changing of his bandages and daily provision of Motrin. 930 F.2d at 1151. Despite the existence of the plan, plaintiff never received any pain medication nor were his bandages changed. Id. at 1152. The Borretti court concluded (similar to Byrd) that the plaintiff had adequately pleaded his deliberate indifference claim and that factual disputes precluded summary judgment. Id. at 1155–56. In each of these cases, it is clear that a medical professional formally mandated a treatment plan. In the instant case, however, Plaintiff’s evidence shows little more than the fact that Hospital staff handed her a breast pump as she was being discharged. Absent proof that the breast pump was prescribed, as is necessary under a diagnosed medical-needs theory, Plaintiff must show that it was so obvious that even a layperson would recognize the need to provide Plaintiff with a breast pump. See Harrison, 539 F.3d at 518. Unlike her shackling claim, where Plaintiff pointed to specific statements by outside organizations and testimony from Defendant’s officer, Plaintiff on this claim has only pointed to the opinion testimony of Torrente and DeBona, who both opined that a breast pump was necessary to allow Plaintiff to express her milk and relieve her breast pain. Such testimony regarding the harmful consequences of being denied the breast pump does not specifically speak to the obviousness of the risk to Plaintiff. Therefore, Plaintiff has failed to produce sufficient evidence to make out the objective component of her breast pump claim, and therefore, the district court improperly granted summary judgment to Plaintiff on this claim as well.10 10 In light of our conclusion that the district court erred in granting Plaintiff summary judgment as to liability, we need not (and decline to) reach Defendant’s issue alleging errors in the trial dealing with damages. No. 11-6031 Villegas v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville Page 23