Donald v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-prison doctors and prison healthcare provider's motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants were deliberately indifferent to his eye infection that resulted in loss of his eye. While plaintiff contended that defendants breached applicable standard of care by failing to promptly refer him to specialist and failing to provide medications on timely basis, plaintiff failed to show that one treating doctor acted with deliberate indifference, where: (1) plaintiff’s symptoms while in said doctor’s care were consistent with conjunctivitis and that said doctor acted within appropriate duty of care when treating said condition; and (2) expert evidence indicated that any indication of corneal infection that caused loss of eye would have appeared only after plaintiff last saw said doctor. Also, plaintiff’s failure to provide expert testimony about optometrist standard of care precluded him from proceeding on any medical malpractice claim against said doctor. Too, plaintiff’s deliberate indifference claim against another prison doctor failed, where said doctor timely referred plaintiff to eye specialist on urgent basis and acted appropriately in following recommendations and diagnosis received from other doctors. Moreover, plaintiff could not proceed under Monell theory against private provider of medical services to prison, where plaintiff failed to establish any indifference claim against prison doctor supplied by said private entity.