Court Opinion

ID: 9817800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 04:45:44.567403+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:23:10.998339
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge, concurring.
A prison official is deliberately indifferent to a prisoner’s serious medical needs only if he is “aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.” Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 837, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). “In addition, prison officials who actually knew of a substantial risk to inmate health or safety may be found free from liability if they responded reasonably to the risk, even if the harm ultimately was not averted.” Id. at 844, 114 S.Ct. 1970. I write separately merely to emphasize that Rocco’s death, while undisputably tragic and possibly avoidable, was not the result of deliberate indifference by the defendants.
From Sunday on, all the defendants were following the advice of medical professionals. The medical professionals who treated Rocco were working without the proper documentation of Rocco’s medical history, including notation of the steroid medication prescribed to prevent another attack. The fault in this case appears to be that of the institution from which Rocco was transferred, not the institution in which he ultimately died. Misinformation, not deliberate indifference, was the ultimate cause of his death.