Harper v. Santos

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Prisoners
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 15-1903
Decision Date: 
February 13, 2017
Federal District: 
S.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-prison medical personnel’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants were deliberately indifferent towards his pain following nine abdominal surgeries, as well as towards management of his diet and their alleged inattention to possible renal cell tumor. While defendants discontinued Vicodin prescription that had been ordered by outside doctor following plaintiff’s surgeries and substituted more Tylenol to treat plaintiff’s pain, medical records supported defendants’ claim that they attempted to manage plaintiff’s pain, and plaintiff otherwise failed to show that increased Tylenol did not alleviate his pain. Plaintiff also failed to show that defendants deprived him of adequate nutrition by failing to feed him eggs-only diet, as opposed to liquid diet, since: (1) defendants actively monitored plaintiff’s dietary needs following his surgeries; and (2) plaintiff was not entitled to dictate terms of his care. Moreover, plaintiff failed to show that defendants were indifferent with respect to their monitoring of his kidney condition, since plaintiff failed to show that blood and urine tests given to him substantially departed from accepted medical practices.