Mitchell v. Lamarca

District Court, E.D. Michigan·Decided October 25, 2024·No. 2:23-cv-10325·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

ORLANDO DEMETRIUS MITCHELL, Civil Action No. 23-10325 Plaintiff, David M. Lawson v. United States District Judge

FRANK LAMARCA, et al., David R. Grand United States Magistrate Judge Defendants. __________________________________/ REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION TO GRANT DEFENDANT DARREL BARROWS, N.P.’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (ECF No. 47) On January 23, 2023, Plaintiff Orlando Mitchell (“Mitchell”), an inmate of the Michigan Department of Corrections (“MDOC”) currently incarcerated at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility, filed this pro se civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.1 (ECF No. 1). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b), all pretrial matters have been referred to the undersigned. (ECF No. 11). In his operative amended complaint, Mitchell alleges, in relevant part, that defendant Darrel Barrows, N.P. (“NP Barrows”) violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment. (ECF No. 13).2

1 Mitchell’s case was transferred to this Court from the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan on February 8, 2023. (ECF No. 3). 2 Mitchell’s operative amended complaint also asserts claims against an unspecified number of John and Jane Does, and a number of other individuals and entities. (ECF No. 13). On February 27, 2024, the undersigned issued a Report and Recommendation to dismiss most of those other individuals and entities, leaving only Allegiance Hospital, Frank Lamarca, M.D., the John and Jane Does, and NP Barrows as defendants in this case. (ECF No. 26). That Report and Recommendation has been adopted. (ECF Nos. 30, 38). Moreover, on September 20, 2024, this Court issued a second Report and Recommendation, this time to grant a motion to dismiss filed by Allegiance and Dr. Lamarca. (ECF No. 52). That Report and Recommendation remains pending. Now before the Court is a Motion for Summary Judgment Based Solely on the Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies, which was filed by NP Barrows on August 15, 2024. (ECF No. 47). Mitchell filed a response to this motion, as well as a supplemental

brief, and NP Barrows filed a reply brief. (ECF Nos. 49, 50, 55).3 Generally, the Court will not hold a hearing on a motion in a civil case in which a party is in custody. See E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(f). Here, the Court finds that the facts and legal issues are adequately presented in the parties’ briefs and on the record, and it declines to order a hearing at this time.

I. RECOMMENDATION For the reasons set forth below, IT IS RECOMMENDED that NP Barrows’ Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 47) be GRANTED. II. REPORT A. Factual Background

In his amended complaint,4 Mitchell alleges that, in 2018, while he was incarcerated at the St. Louis Correctional Facility (“SLF”) in St. Louis, Michigan, he experienced a sharp pain emanating from a lump in his lower back. (ECF No. 13, PageID.26). After “SUFFERING THIS PAIN FOR A FEW MONTHS,”5 Mitchell was seen by an outside

3 On October 16, 2024, the Court received Mitchell’s “Response to Defendant’s [] Reply to Plaintiff’s Response to His Motion for Summary Judgment.” (ECF No. 57). Although the Court recognizes that this filing is an unauthorized sur-reply brief and could be stricken, given Mitchell’s pro se status, the Court will consider the filing’s contents in ruling on the underlying motion. 4 Attached to Mitchell’s amended complaint is a copy of his original complaint. Thus, the Court will consider the allegations contained in both filings when evaluating NP Barrows’ motion. 5 In quoting from Mitchell’s filings, the Court will do so verbatim, including misspellings, fonts, specialist, Allegiance neurosurgeon Dr. Lamarca. (Id., PageID.27). On Dr. Lamarca’s orders, a CT scan and MRI were performed. (Id.). Mitchell then consented to Dr. Lamarca’s recommendation that surgery be performed to remove “THE LUMP IN HIS

LOWER BACK (RIGHT SIDE)” and a cyst “WHICH WAS WRAPPED AROUND HIS SPINE.” (Id.). Dr. Lamarca performed the surgery at Allegiance on February 4, 2020. (Id., PageID.40-41). According to medical records attached by Mitchell to his amended complaint, several surgical procedures were performed that day, including L2-3 transverse

lumbar interbody fusion from the right, interbody biomechanical device placement, non- segmental posterior fixation, and right complete foraminotomy and resection of cyst. (Id., PageID.40; see also id., PageID.44-49). Despite what the medical records reflect in terms of the surgical procedures performed, Mitchell alleges that Dr. Lamarca performed “the improper surgical procedure of a spinal infusion instead of the proper sergical procedure

to remove the cist from the Plaintiff’s lower back right side and never made actions to correct the mistake before discharging Plaintiff from the hospital and taking him off medical hold at the prison housing facility of SLF.”6 (ECF No. 41, PageID.315).

and improper capitalization or punctuation, to ensure statements are not taken out of context. 6 According to Mitchell, after the surgery, Dr. Lamarca informed him that some unidentified “MISTAKE” had been made; that Dr. Lamarca had believed there were cysts on Mitchell’s spine; and that he “SENT THEM TO THE LAB TO BE TESTED ….” (ECF No. 13, PageID.27). Mitchell claims, however, that he has never received a report with the “FINAL RESULT” of this testing. (Id., PageID.27-28). Mitchell also alleges that, at some point, he was transferred to the Kinross Correctional Facility (“KCF”), where he saw Dr. Timothy Stallman, who performed a “COMPLETE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF HIS BACK” and concluded that “JUST LOOKING AT THE XRAYS, IT SHOWED THAT THE SURGEON [Dr. Lamarca] DID NOT Elsewhere, however, Mitchell alleges – somewhat inconsistently – that it was NP Barrows who sent him back to “THE FACILITY [HE] HAD COME FROM,” “authorized the plaintiff to be taken off medical hold,” and placed him “ONLY ON A PERMANENT

LOWER BUNK DETAIL.” (ECF No. 13, PageID.21, 29). Indeed, Mitchell’s most specifically articulated allegation against NP Barrows, taken from his response to NP Barrows’ motion, is as follows: … Darrel Barrows reviewed MD Lamarca reports, seen that Plaintiff did not have the right surgery of a cist to had been surgically removed from Plaintiff’s lower back right side and did not act accordingly to alert officials of the report to proper authorities that prisoner Plaintiff did not have the surgery to his lower back right side and that Plaintiff still is need of the right surgery (INDIFFERENCE), yet still intentionally not induce such information mislead the proper authorities under false pretenses to take prisoner Plaintiff off medical hold (DELIBERATELY). (ECF No. 41, PageID.317; see also ECF No. 13, PageID.29 (alleging that NP Barrows authorized Mitchell’s transfer back to SLF, “ONLY” placing him on a permanent lower bunk detail)). Thus, Mitchell’s Eighth Amendment claim against NP Barrows stems solely from his allegation that, despite learning that the surgery performed by Dr. Lamarca did not go as expected and was not entirely successful, he authorized Mitchell “to be taken off

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