Opinion ID: 3003981
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dr. Johnson, Sheriff McCoy, and Superinten-

Text: dent Smith in Their Individual Capacities Dr. Norman Johnson, Sheriff Michael McCoy, and Superintendent Steven Smith did not have contact with Taylor during the days immediately preceding her death. So, in order to sustain a due process claim against them, the plaintiff needs to show that they had knowledge of Taylor’s condition and somehow ratified the deliberate indifference of those persons who were directly responsible for Taylor’s care. See Hudson, 148 F.3d at 863. Given that the record reveals no evidence that they knew of Taylor’s incarceration, condition, or requests for medical attention, summary judgment in their favor is appropriate. No. 08-2187 23 b. Advanced Correctional Healthcare, Inc., Peoria County, Illinois, and Defendants in Their Official Capacities It is well established that there is no respondeat superior liability under § 1983. See Horwitz v. Bd. of Educ. of Avoca Sch. Dist. No. 37, 260 F.3d 602, 619-20 (7th Cir. 2001). A “private corporation is not vicariously liable under § 1983 for its employees’ deprivations of others’ civil rights.” Iskander v. Vill. of Forest Park, 690 F.2d 126, 128 (7th Cir. 1982). Generally, to maintain a viable § 1983 action against a municipality, a government agent (such as Advanced Correctional Healthcare, Inc.), or individual policymaking defendants in their official capacities (such as Johnson, McCoy, and Smith), a plaintiff must demonstrate that a constitutional deprivation occurred as the result of an express policy or custom promulgated by that entity or an individual with policymaking authority. See Latuszkin v. City of Chicago, 250 F.3d 502, 504 (7th Cir. 2001). So, in order to maintain an action against Advanced Correctional Health Care, Inc. or Peoria County, the plaintiff must show that PCJ’s healthcare policy was a “moving force” behind Taylor’s death or needless suffering. Latuskin, 250 F.3d at 505. Here, the plaintiff cites two policies which he contends contributed to Taylor’s death. First, he claims that the jail’s policy did not permit the guards to directly contact Dr. Johnson when they felt that a prisoner needed a doctor’s attention. Second, he argues that when a prisoner is “very sick” guards should check on her every half hour. 24 No. 08-2187 At PCJ, a doctor is present to take appointments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The doctor is on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for any medical emergency. Prison policy dictates that a doctor is supposed to be contacted if a prisoner complains of a serious medical condition, specifically including chest pain. At all other times there is a nurse or nurse practitioner on site to handle minor emergencies and other ailments. Although mandating a doctor’s visit or constant prisoner checks would likely reduce the number of illness-related deaths or injuries, it is neither economically prudent nor feasible to put such policies in place. As the plaintiff conceded at oral argument, the policies that were in place were sufficient to provide Taylor with adequate medical care; instead, the plaintiff alleges that the harm to Taylor resulted from the nurses’ failure to follow these policies. So, any type of Monell claim fails. See Monell v. City of New York, 436 U.S. 658 (1978). As such, summary judgment for all non-nurse defendants is appropriate. We now turn to the defendants that actually had contact with Taylor prior to her untimely death. c. Nurse Radcliff Nurse Radcliff was the first medical professional to “treat” Taylor upon her arrival at PCJ. Taylor complained of chest pains. Nurse Radcliff failed to follow PCJ’s protocol which requires her to contact a doctor when an inmate complains of chest pains. She also failed to take Taylor’s vital signs. No. 08-2187 25 Instead, Nurse Radcliff responded to Taylor’s complaints by putting her on the list to have her vitals checked each morning, and, according to her own statements, asked Taylor about the severity of her chest pain. More importantly, she had Taylor call her brother to bring her CHF medication to PCJ and put a specific note on Taylor’s chart to call the doctor if the medication was not delivered by the next day. “[D]eliberate indifference may be inferred based upon a medical professional’s erroneous treatment decision only when the medical professional’s decision is such a substantial departure from accepted professional judgment, practice, or standards as to demonstrate that the person re- sponsible did not base the decision on such a judgment.” Estate of Cole by Pardue v. Fromm, 94 F.3d 254, 261-62 (7th Cir. 1996). If this standard is not met, the deliberate indifference question may not go to the jury. Id. Here, although she did not have Taylor immediately examined by a doctor, given that she took reasonable measures to ensure that Taylor would get her medication, and put a notation in her chart to have her seen by a doctor if they did not arrive, it cannot be said that Nurse Radcliff’s judgment departed so substantially from the professional norm that she acted deliberately indifferent to Taylor’s health. Nor can it be said that her actions were “so dangerous” that the deliberate nature of her conduct can be inferred. Qian, 168 F.3d at 955. So, summary judgment in Nurse Radcliff’s favor is appropriate. 26 No. 08-2187 d. Nurse Mattus Nurse Mattus examined Taylor after she complained of nausea. During this examination, Taylor neither vomited nor complained of chest pain. In response, Nurse Mattus put Taylor on the morning sick call list, but refused to give her any medication to quell her nausea. Certainly Nurse Mattus should have checked Taylor’s chart and ascertained whether Taylor’s CHF medications had been delivered, and in response to finding that they had not been, immediately followed up with Dr. Johnson. But, her failure to do so was not a deliberate indifference to a serious medical condition, but mere negligence— Taylor neither vomited nor complained of chest pain during the visit; had she done so, our analysis might be different. But since she did not, and negligence is not actionable as a due process violation, summary judgment in favor of Nurse Mattus is appropriate. See Steele v. Choi, 82 F.3d 175, 178 (7th Cir. 1996) (courts must “distinguish between deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners, on the one hand, and negligen[ce] in diagnosing or treating medical condition, on the other,” and “only the former” violates the Eighth Amendment (citations omitted)). e. Nurse Hibbert 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 No. 08-2187 27 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) (“[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 28 No. 08-2187 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.