Civil Rights — medical indifference

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Rights — medical indifference

Where a nurse offered a prisoner with scoliosis no option to getting into an upper bunk without a ladder, summary judgment in the nurse’s favor on the prisoner’s medical indifference claim must be reversed.

“The nurse knew that the plaintiff had scoliosis and intermittent back pain and may also have known that a deformity of the spine can make it difficult, whether because of scoliosis-related back pain or some other consequence of that condition, for a sufferer from scoliosis to climb to an upper bunk safely without using a ladder. We are mindful that there is ‘another way people get up to the top bunk (especially teenagers)’—‘ by stepping onto the bottom bunk, and then either climbing or jumping up to the top bunk.’ WikiHow—To Do Anything, ‘How to Get Up to the Top Bunk of a Bunk Bed,’ www.wikihow.com/Get-Up-to-the- Top-Bunk-of-a-Bunk-Bed (visited Feb. 17, 2013). But ‘you need to have fairly good upper-body strength for this though.’ Id. It may not have been a feasible alternative to a ladder for this plaintiff, given his condition.”

Affirmed in part, Reversed in part, and Remanded.

10-3012 Withers v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Baker, J., Posner, J.