Opinion ID: 1405731
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nurse Hibbert

Text: Later that morning, Taylor again went to PCJ's infirmary complaining of nausea. Nurse Hibbert examined her and found that her blood pressure was high. Taylor asked for anti-nausea medication but did not vomit. Nurse Hibbert did not give Taylor this medication, but she testified that had she seen Taylor vomit, protocol would have dictated that she administer anti-nausea medication to her. She also testified that she knew of Taylor's CHF, and that the prison policy stated that a nurse should retrieve a prisoner's medical chart before examining her. Had she done so, she would have seen that Taylor was supposed to have been examined by a doctor because her brother failed to bring her CHF medications to the prison, and that Taylor had complained of chest pain during intake. Later that day, Taylor vomited while attending a court proceeding via video. The prison guards were so concerned about Taylor's health that they felt it necessary to collect her vomit in a trash bag. Admirably, they immediately called Nurse Hibbert and told her that Taylor needed to be examined as soon as possible. (Nurse Hibbert disputes the guards' version of events, but for our purposes we accept it as true). Despite clear indications that Taylor was in serious medical needshe had complained of chest pain, exhibited high blood pressure hours earlier, and vomited during a video hearingNurse Hibbert refused to see Taylor, and instead told the guards to have her fill out a sick request form. See Walker v. Benjamin, 293 F.3d 1030, 1037 (7th Cir.2002) (quoting Farmer, 511 U.S. at 842, 114 S.Ct. 1970) ([A] factfinder may conclude that a prison official knew of a substantial risk from the very fact that the risk was obvious.). Nurse Hibbert herself admitted that if she had seen Taylor vomit, she would have given her anti-nausea medication. But faced with the guards' concern and a bag full of vomit, she did not. In fact, the record reveals that the reason she did nothing was, because, according to the guards' testimony, it was approaching the end of her shift and she wanted to let the next nurse handle the situation. As a result of her inaction, Officer Browning, one of the guards that told Nurse Hibbert to examine Taylor, thought that Nurse Hibbert violated prison protocol, and filed a complaint against her. And all three of the guards present at the video hearing testified for the plaintiff in this matter. Given that Nurse Hibbert refused to treat or even see Taylor in spite of her serious medical condition, a jury could easily find that her actions surpassed mere negligence and entered the realm of deliberate indifference. In fact, the guards' testimony regarding Taylor's condition, and the various acts that they took to try to help her, shows that even a layperson would believe that Taylor's condition was serious. See Hayes, 546 F.3d at 522. Therefore, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Nurse Hibbert.