TALBERT v. CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 16, 2019
Docket2:18-cv-05112
StatusUnknown

This text of TALBERT v. CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES (TALBERT v. CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
TALBERT v. CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES, (E.D. Pa. 2019).

Opinion

. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA CHARLES TALBERT : CIVIL ACTION v. NO. 18-5112 CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES, et al. :

MEMORANDUM KEARNEY, J. September 16, 2019 Citizens incarcerated in state prison awaiting their criminal trial are entitled to medical care. The contracted medical professionals providing this care must do so consistent with the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on deliberate indifference to the prisoner’s medical needs. A constitutional claim under the Eighth Amendment requires more than negligence. Disagreements over medical decisions and prescription protocols do not generally rise to the level of a constitutional claim. We today address a serial pro se litigant’s latest challenge to medical care during one of his recent pre-trial detentions in a state prison. He challenges medical professionals’ failure to provide him with Flexeril for back spasms, Imodium for bowel issues, and a special diet and advice to address his high cholesterol and high triglycerides. He fails to plead these medical decisions constitute deliberate indifference under the Eighth Amendment. As he is again pro se, we dismiss his complaint without prejudice to timely amending his complaint to allege facts of deliberate indifference against the medical professionals, including the as yet-unserved medical professionals named in his complaint if he can do so in good faith.

I. Pro se alleged facts.! While detained in a Philadelphia prison awaiting his criminal trial in state court, Charles Talbert suffered from: “(A) oral infection, cavities, and required anesthetic oral surgery; (B) irritable bowel syndrome, chronic lower-back muscle spasms, high cholesterol and/or triglycerides; and (C) anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and insomnia.” The City of Philadelphia contracts with Corizon Health, Inc. to provide medical care to inmates in Philadelphia prisons.2 Mr. Talbert challenges the medical care provided during his nearly seven-month detention from September 2018 to April 2019 by three groups of contracted medical care providers: (1) dental care provided by Correctional Dental Associates and its staff; (2) medical care provided by Corizon Health, Inc. and its staff; and, (3) mental health care provided by Mental Health Management and its staff.* Allegations against Physician’s Assistant Shellenberger. On March 1, 2019, physician’s assistant Deborah Shellenberger “discontinued [Mr. Talbert’s] Flexeril,” a muscle relaxant, “and Imodium.”> Ms. Shellenberger “informed [Mr. Talbert] of him having high cholesterol and high triglycerides” but did not provide Mr. Talbert with: “(A) information how to reduce these high levels[;] (B) medication to reduce these high levels[;] (C) a special diet to reduce these high levels.”® Ms. Shellenberger’s actions and conduct caused him: “(A) [fJoreseeable, untreated, excruciating pain and muscle spasms; (B) [floreseeable, untreated, accidents while sleep, causing feces to unknowingly, and uncontrollably, run down [his] legs while sleeping, and causing severe rashes and burns therefrom.””’ Ms. Shellenberger’s conduct caused him “untreated high blood pressure, cholesterol, and/or triglycerides, putting [him] at a foreseeable risk of a stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and/or, death.’®

Allegations against Nurse Horne. From March 3, 2019 to March 21, 2019, licensed practical nurse Antiletta Horne “deprived [Mr. Talbert] of his Immodium [sic] . . . a Corizon physician” prescribed.” Allegations against Dr. Kalu. Corizon’s Regional Medical Director Dr. Eke Kalu “failed to provide [Mr. Talbert] with adequate medical staff, and/or, a referral to be seen by adequate medical staff, for his serious medical conditions.””!° Dr. Kalu “was fully aware” of his “serious medical conditions, through the sick call request system, progress notes, as well as other medical records” and Dr. Kalu “turned a blind eye and condoned” Ms. Shellenberger’s and Ms. Horne’s actions. !! II. Analysis. Dr. Kalu, Ms. Shellenberger, and Ms. Horne move to dismiss Mr. Talbert’s amended complaint.!? We grant their motion in an accompanying Order. As Mr. Talbert has not had the opportunity to amend consistent with a possible claim of deliberate indifference, we grant him leave to timely amend to plead deliberate indifference if he can do so in good faith. A. Mr. Talbert fails to plead Dr. Kalu, Physician’s Assistant Shellenberger, and Nurse Horne’s deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Dr. Kalu, Physician’s Assistant Shellenberger, and Nurse Horne move to dismiss Mr. Talbert’s deliberate indifference claims against them. We liberally construe Mr. Talbert’s pro se claims against Dr. Kalu, Ms. Shellenberger, and Ms. Horne as alleging their deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Our Court of Appeals requires an inmate plead “(1) . . . the defendants were deliberately indifferent to their medical needs and (2) . . . those needs were serious.”!? Inmates have a constitutional right to adequate medical care."* “In order to state a Fourteenth Amendment claim of inadequate medical attention upon which relief may be granted, a plaintiff must allege ... a

defendant acted with deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.”!> A prison official is deliberately indifferent if he or she “knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn... a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.”!° But allegations of “(njegligence and malpractice do not constitute” deliberate indifference to medical needs, !”

“A medical need is serious... if it is one... . has been diagnosed by a physician as requiring treatment or one... so obvious. . . alay person would easily recognize the necessity for a doctor’s attention.”'® A medical need may also be serious “if ‘unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain[]’ results as a consequence of denial or delay in the provision of adequate medical care.”'? Examples of deliberate indifference include “where the prison official (1) knows of a prisoner’s need for medical treatment but intentionally refuses to provide it; (2) delays necessary medical treatment based on a non-medical reason; [] (3) prevents a prisoner from receiving needed or recommended medical treatment[;]” and (4) “persists in a particular course of treatment ‘in the face of resultant pain and risk of permanent injury.’””° 1. We dismiss Mr. Talbert’s deliberate indifference claim against Dr. Kalu. Mr. Talbert alleges Dr. Kalu, Corizon’s regional medical director, “failed to provide [him] with adequate medical staff, and/or, a referral to be seen by adequate medical staff... .”*! Because Mr. Talbert is a pretrial detainee, we construe Mr. Talbert’s complaint as alleging deliberate indifference to a serious medical need in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Dr. Kalua argues Mr. Talbert fails to plead a serious medical need and fails to plead Dr. Kalu possessed the requisite level of intent to be held liable for deliberate indifference.” We are guided by multiple cases in which our Court of Appeals examined district court dismissals of inmates’ deliberate indifference claims. In McGinnis v. Hammer, the inmate

complained of severe knee pain.** A physician’s assistant promptly saw the inmate and prescribed Ibuprofen but did not physically examine the knee.*> The inmate filed a grievance. The inmate later told the same physician’s assistant the Ibuprofen was not working.

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Bluebook (online)
TALBERT v. CORRECTIONAL DENTAL ASSOCIATES, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/talbert-v-correctional-dental-associates-paed-2019.