Opinion ID: 772697
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutional Right to Reasonable Medical Care

Text: 21 Plaintiffs correctly observe that pretrial detainees have a constitutional right, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, not to have their serious medical needs met with deliberate indifference on the part of the confining officials. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 103 (1976); Hare v. City of Corinth, 74 F.3d 633, 636 (5th Cir. 1996) (en banc) (Hare II); Lancaster v. Monroe County, 116 F.3d 1419, 1426 (11th Cir. 1997); Colle v. Brazos County, Texas, 981 F.2d 237 (5th Cir. 1993); Fielder v. Bosshard, 590 F.2d 105, 107 (5th Cir. 1979). Lancaster, Colle and Fielder establish that delirium tremens is a serious medical need. 22 In Fielder, a request by the prisoner's mother to the jailer that he receive medical attention for delirium tremens was followed by a request from the prisoner himself. Fielder 590 F.2d at 108. These requests were ignored, the jailers stating that they thought the prisoner was faking. Id. This evidence was sufficient to support the jury's verdict for the plaintiff. Id. 23 Colle reversed the district court's dismissal of the plaintiff's complaint and held that the plaintiff properly alleged a constitutional violation by asserting that the sheriff: 1) staffed the jail with persons who did not have the authority to transfer a detainee to the hospital; and 2) had a policy of failing to monitor the serious health needs of detainees. Colle, 981 F.2d at 245. The sheriff's jailers failed to call for medical assistance as the condition of an inmate they knew to be suffering from delirium tremens worsened. Id. at 240. 24 Lancaster reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment based on defendants' entitlement to qualified immunity and held that either a total failure to provide or an exacerbating delay in providing life saving medical treatment to a detainee suffering from DTs was a violation of constitutional rights. Lancaster, 116 F.3d at 1425-28. The court cited Fielder for the proposition that DTs was recognized as a serious medical need. Id. at 1426. Lancaster established that ignoring the dangers of alcohol withdrawal and waiting for a manifest emergency before summoning medical help constituted deliberate indifference. 8 The facts in Lancaster were particularly egregious because the detainee's wife and father had informed a jailer and the sheriff that the detainee was a chronic alcoholic, would suffer DTs, and would need immediate help if he had a seizure. 25 Plaintiffs rely most heavily upon Weaver v. Tipton County, Tennessee, 41 F.Supp.2d 779, 782 (W.D. Tenn. 1999). In Weaver, a prisoner who had a history of seizures and alcohol withdrawal appeared to have a seizure and was told he was going to be taken to the hospital. The prisoner stated that he was fine and that a trip to the hospital was unnecessary. The next day a psychologist told the jailer the prisoner needed to be taken to the emergency room. The prisoner was never taken to the emergency room and was never again offered a trip to the hospital. He died six days after entering the jail, four days after initially refusing a trip to the hospital. The jailers moved for summary judgment solely on the basis of qualified immunity. The district court denied the motion because it concluded that, in the Sixth Circuit, when a plaintiff alleges deliberate indifference to a prisoner's needs, the defense of qualified immunity is precluded. Id. at 785. The district court noted its disagreement with the Sixth Circuit's construction of Farmer v. Brennan, 114 S.Ct. 1970 (1994), in this respect, and likewise indicated its agreement with the Fifth Circuit's opinion in Hare III, which held that the defense of qualified immunity is not precluded by a deliberate indifference claim. Weaver, 41 F.Supp.2d at 785 n.5. 26 Plaintiffs' reliance upon Weaver is misplaced. Weaver, in obedience to its understanding of Sixth Circuit law, merely concluded that an allegation of deliberate indifference precluded the defense of qualified immunity without reference to whether the conduct of the defendant was objectively reasonable, contrary to the law of this circuit. Moreover, Weaver is not only a decision of a district court outside of this circuit, and not a decision of this Court, but it was handed down almost eighteen months after Thompson died, and cannot be considered part of any body of law that was then clearly established.