Sours ex rel. Estate of Sours v. Big Sandy Regional Jail Authority

946 F. Supp. 2d 678, 2013 WL 2322771, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75092
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Kentucky
DecidedMay 28, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 11-115-ART
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 946 F. Supp. 2d 678 (Sours ex rel. Estate of Sours v. Big Sandy Regional Jail Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sours ex rel. Estate of Sours v. Big Sandy Regional Jail Authority, 946 F. Supp. 2d 678, 2013 WL 2322771, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75092 (E.D. Ky. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge.

On July 13, 2010, James Sours was arrested and booked into the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center. R. 52-1. Two days later Sours was dead. R. 52-14. The tragic events that led to Sours’s death are the subject of this case, instituted by plaintiff William Sours as the administrator of his brother’s estate. The plaintiff believes that the defendants violated Sours’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and state law. The defendants have now moved for summary judgment. Their motion is granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

When Sours entered the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, the intake officer sent him to see Nurse Nancy Allison because Sours was a diabetic. R. 56-1 at 26-27. Nurse Allison was responsible for inmates’ medical care when the Detention Center’s physician, Dr. Sarah Belhasen, was not present. R. 58-2 at 34. Nurse Allison met with Sours to discuss his medical history. She noted that he had liver problems, high blood pressure, and diabetes. R. 51-1 at 1. His last medical evaluation for his diabetes was at least one month before his arrest.1 R. 51-1 at 1; R. 56-1 at 41. Thus, Nurse Allison concluded that Sours’s diabetic condition was not “too bad.”.. Id. at 42-43. His last doctor had put him on a “sliding scale,” meaning that a scale indicates the appropriate insulin dosage for a particular blood sugar level. Id. at 34-35. But Sours had not taken insulin in over a month, and he told Nurse Allison that he was sometimes confused about when and if he took insulin. R. 56-1 at 42-43. Sours explicitly told Nurse Allison that he could not care for himself and had no one who could bring insulin to the jail. R. 52-2 at 1. Nurse Allison recognized that Sours’s blood sugar, which dropped from 283 to 274 during this meeting, was “a little high.” R. 56-1 at 45, 53. But Nurse Allison attributed Sours’s high blood sugar to the influence of drugs or alcohol, which can cause a spike in blood sugar. R. 56-1 at 44-45, 106. After meeting with Sours, Nurse Allison faxed her progress notes about Sours to Dr. Belhasen, seeking instructions for Sours’s treatment. R. 51-2. Nurse Allison then implemented Dr. Belhasen’s standing order that diabetics receive a carbohydrate-restricted diet and left instructions for the deputy jailers to monitor Sours’s blood sugar. R. 51-2; R. 56-1 at 29-30.

Sours’s blood sugar remained erratic. At 6:00 a.m. the following day, Sours’s blood sugar dropped to 254, only to rise at 2:30 pm. to 327. R. 51-3 at 1. Nurse [682]*682Allison attributed this blood sugar spike to the fact that Sours was detoxing. R. 56-1 at 55-56. At 5:35 p.m., Sours told Deputy-Jailers Salyer and Blanton that he did not feel well. R. 51-4; R. 56-1 at 73-76. Deputies Blanton and Salyer took Sours to see Nurse Allison. R. 51-4. Sours was agitated. He told Nurse Allison that he wanted to go home, was nauseous, and had vomited. R. 56-1 at 73-76. But he denied that his blood sugar was acting up. Id. And Sours did not have the “classical symptoms” of a diabetic episode such as increased thirst, hunger, urination, or headache. Id. at 82-83. So Nurse Allison concluded that Sours was still detoxing and placed him in a medical observation cell where Sours would be monitored by video and regularly observed in person by deputy jailers. R. 51-5; R. 56-1 at 76, 142-43.

Nurse Allison did not observe anything unusual before she left that night. Id. at 77, 79. Before she left, she told the deputy jailers to monitor Sours’s blood sugar level, although she noted that there was no insulin in the Detention Center for Sours. R. 51-7. Nurse Allison also noted that Dr. Belhasen had ordered blood work and would see Sours the following week. R. 51-6; R. 51-7. But Nurse Allison did not send her progress notes to Dr. Belhasen, and she did not tell Dr. Belhasen that Sours’s blood sugar had spiked to 327. R. 56-2 at 8; R. 56-3 at 27-28. Nurse Allison also met with the jail administrator, Randy Madan. R. 56-1 at 112. Madan coordinates all training and supervision for the Big Sandy Regional Jail Authority (“Jail Authority”). R. 58-2 at 70. Nurse Allison told Madan that Sours was a “critical situation” because he was uncooperative. R. 56-1 at 112.

Deputy Jailers Jordan, Allen, and Adkins worked from midnight to 8:00 a.m. on July 15, 2010. R. 57-1 at 24-25, 33. Deputy Allen was the senior officer and supervisor on duty. R. 52-9 at 1. The previous shift informed the deputy jailers that Sours was a diabetic in observation who was irritable and had vomited. R. 57-2 at 25; R. 57-3 at 26-28. At approximately 3:15 a.m., Sours complained to deputies Allen and Adkins that he was having chest pains. R. 57-2 at 30. Deputy Allen asked Deputy Jordan (who was monitoring Sours via video, R. 58-1 at 10) to watch Sours closely on video monitors in the control room. R. 51-10. Six minutes later, Deputy Jordan observed Sours trying to make himself throw up. R. 51-11. Then, at 6:17 a.m., Deputy Adkins went to Sours’s observation cell to escort him to the medical wing so that staff could test his blood sugar. R. 51-12; R. 57-2 at 19-20. Sours refused to take his blood sugar. R. 51-12. But he did complain of chest pain and said that his blood pressure was “out of control.” R. 51-12; R. 57-1 at 47; R. 57-2 at 48419.

Deputy Jailer Paul Griffith worked from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on July 15, 2010. R. 57-4 at 11. Sours refused Deputy Griffith’s repeated offers of medication and refused another deputy jailer’s attempts to take his blood sugar. R. 51-13; R. 51 — 14; R. 57-4 at 11. Sours later refused Deputy Montgomery’s attempts to bring Sours to the nurses’ station to have his blood sugar taken. R. 51-3; R. 58-3 at 11-12. Jad guards believed that everything was “ok” until 10:15 p.m., when Deputy Blanton observed Sours attempting to make himself throw up. R. 51-17; R. 57-3 at 29. Then, at 10:45 p.m., Deputy Salyer found Sours awake and breathing but unresponsive. R. 51-21; R. 51-22; R. 57-3 at 34-35. Deputy Salyer summoned deputies Blanton and Montgomery, who arrived seven minutes later. R. 57-3 at 53. Deputy Montgomery called an ambulance six minutes after he arrived at the cell. R. 51-23; R. 58-3 at 42, 46. The ambulance arrived [683]*683several minutes later, but Sours stopped breathing “just seconds before” emergency personnel entered his cell. R. 51-21; R. 52-12; R. 58-3 at 48. The medical personnel took Sours to the local hospital, where he died of diabetic ketoacidosis. R. 52-12; R. 52-14.

The plaintiff sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the defendants violated Sours’s Fourteenth Amendment rights. The plaintiff also believes the defendants are liable for negligence, gross negligence, and violations of 501 Ky. Admin. Regs. § 3:090. See R. 25. The defendants now move for summary judgment. R. 51.

ANALYSIS

As the moving party, the defendants must demonstrate that undisputed evidence forecloses a claim or identify an element of a claim that Sours cannot support with admissible evidence. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323-24, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). If they do so, Sours must respond with “specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
946 F. Supp. 2d 678, 2013 WL 2322771, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75092, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sours-ex-rel-estate-of-sours-v-big-sandy-regional-jail-authority-kyed-2013.