Drew 048508 v. Paul

District Court, D. Arizona·Decided November 9, 2021·No. 2:21-cv-01488·Unknown

Opinion

1 KM 2 WO 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Tommy D. Drew, No. CV 21-01488-PHX-MTL (ESW) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Theodora Paul, et al., 13 14 Defendants.

15 16 Pending before the Court is Plaintiff Tommy D. Drew’s October 4, 2021 Second 17 Amended Complaint (Doc. 11). The Court will order Defendants Furar, Paul, and Young 18 to answer the Second Amended Complaint and will dismiss the remaining Defendants 19 without prejudice. 20 I. Procedural Background 21 On August 30, 2021, Plaintiff, who is confined in the Arizona State Prison 22 Complex-Lewis, filed a pro se civil rights Complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and an 23 Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. On September 13, 2021, Plaintiff filed a First 24 Amended Complaint. In a September 24, 2021 Order, the Court granted the Application 25 to Proceed and dismissed the First Amended Complaint with leave to amend. Plaintiff 26 filed the Second Amended Complaint on October 4, 2021. 27 . . . . 28 . . . . 1 II. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 2 The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief 3 against a governmental entity or an officer or an employee of a governmental entity. 28 4 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if a plaintiff 5 has raised claims that are legally frivolous or malicious, that fail to state a claim upon which 6 relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from 7 such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1)–(2). 8 A pleading must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the 9 pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2) (emphasis added). While Rule 8 does 10 not demand detailed factual allegations, “it demands more than an unadorned, the- 11 defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 12 (2009). “Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere 13 conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Id. 14 “[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a 15 claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Id. (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 16 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). A claim is plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content 17 that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 18 misconduct alleged.” Id. “Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for 19 relief [is] . . . a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial 20 experience and common sense.” Id. at 679. Thus, although a plaintiff’s specific factual 21 allegations may be consistent with a constitutional claim, a court must assess whether there 22 are other “more likely explanations” for a defendant’s conduct. Id. at 681. 23 But as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has instructed, courts 24 must “continue to construe pro se filings liberally.” Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 342 25 (9th Cir. 2010). A “complaint [filed by a pro se prisoner] ‘must be held to less stringent 26 standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’” Id. (quoting Erickson v. Pardus, 551 27 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (per curiam)). 28 1 III. Second Amended Complaint 2 Plaintiff names the following Defendants in his one-count Second Amended 3 Complaint: Site Medical Director Theodora Paul; Medical Provider Renae Furar; Director 4 of Nursing Donna Mendoza; Medical Providers Nicole Johnson, Lillian Davod, Xiao-Ke 5 Gao, and Michelle Jennings; Nurses Jessica Gonzalez, Nivia Campa, Michelle Bryniak, 6 Marcella Aumack, Melissa Michel, Angela White, Christina Robles, Oyuki Coronado, 7 Sarah Ziegler, and Anita Benavidez; and Regional Medical Director Young. Plaintiff seeks 8 declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief. 9 Plaintiff’s alleges violations of his Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical 10 care. In 2016, Plaintiff began experiencing excruciating and debilitatingly painful 11 headaches. (Doc. 11 at 4.)1 He was prescribed Imitrex, Excedrin, indomethacin, Tylenol 12 III, ibuprofen, and Toradol injections “after he began bringing his pain and suffering to the 13 attention of the ASPC-Lewis medical staff.” (Id.) Plaintiff alleges none of these 14 medications has alleviated his pain and “subsequently, in order to attain relief from the 15 constant excruciating and sometimes debilitating pain . . ., he began self-medicating with 16 heroin.” (Id.) 17 On February 4, 2020, Defendant Furar examined Plaintiff and ordered a CT 18 scan. (Id. at 5.) Plaintiff informed Furar that the Excedrin had no effect in alleviating his 19 pain and “departed from his examination [still] suffering excruciating pain . . . .” (Id.) For 20 the entire month of March 2020, Plaintiff suffered “excruciating pain” and his Health 21 Needs Requests (HNRs) were ignored. (Id.) 22 On April 2, 2020, Defendant Furar again examined Plaintiff and Plaintiff again 23 informed her that the Excedrin “did nothing.” (Id. at 6.) Defendant Furar told Plaintiff, 24 “you’re a liar,” and refused to prescribe Plaintiff an alternative treatment to alleviate the 25 pain. (Id.) On May 4, 2020, Plaintiff again informed Furar that the Excedrin was “doing 26 nothing” to stop his pain, and Furar again “indicated to [Plaintiff] she did not believe 27

28 1 The citation refers to the document and page number generated by the Court’s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system. 1 him.” (Id. at 6, 7.) 2 On May 5 and 12, 2020, Plaintiff spoke with Defendant Nurse Gonzalez regarding 3 his HNRs. Gonzalez refused to refer him to a medical provider and “accused him of 4 malingering and ordered Plaintiff [to] be immediately returned to his housing unit.” (Id. 5 at 7.) 6 On June 23, 2020, Defendant Campa saw Plaintiff and “avoided all discussion” 7 concerning Plaintiff’s pain. (Id. at 8.) On June 29, 2020, “in relation to Campa’s referral,” 8 Defendant Furar met with Plaintiff and accused him of lying about his pain. (Id.) 9 On July 20, 2020, Plaintiff had a CT scan that revealed a “small arachnoid cyst in 10 the left middle cranial fossa with low-attenuation in the right sphenoid bone measuring 11 17x10 mm.” (Id. at 9.) Plaintiff asserts that according to the National Institute of Health, 12 an untreated arachnoid cyst may cause permanent severe neurological damage “when 13 progressive expansion of the cyst or bleeding into the cyst injures the brain or spinal 14 cord.” (Id.) 15 On August 17, 2020, Plaintiff filed an Inmate Informal Complaint Resolution. On 16 September 11, 2020, Defendant Mendoza responded, omitting “all mention of the fact of 17 the excruciating pain inside [Plaintiff’s] skull.” (Id. at 10.) 18 From September 2020 through January 2021, Plaintiff filed multiple HNRs relating 19 to his pain. From October 2020 through January 2021, Plaintiff was seen thirteen times 20 “by various named Defendants, and on each occasion[,] Plaintiff was accused of fabricating 21 his claim that he was suffering from excruciating pain inside his skull, that began in 22 2016.” (Id.) 23 On January 28, 2021, Plaintiff collapsed as a result of his pain and an Incident 24 Command System (ICS) was called.

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