Withers v. Wexford Health Sources, inc.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting motion for summary judgment by defendants-certain health professionals employed by or under contract to prison in section 1983 action alleging that said defendants were deliberately indifferent to plaintiff-prisoner’s scoliosis condition in his spine by failing to assign him lower bunk, medical mattress, back brace or orthopedic shoes. Record showed that plaintiff had no medical need for any of these devices, and that his medical condition was not serious enough to warrant them. However, Dist. Ct. erred in granting motion for judgment with respect to defendant-nurse, who refused plaintiff’s request to stay overnight in prison’s Health Care Unit due to back pain, and instead wheeled plaintiff back to his cell and told him to climb into his upper bunk bed on his own even though plaintiff indicated that he could not do so and wound up injuring himself while trying to climb into upper bunk bed.