Wykoff v. Wayne Cnty., Case No. 16-12653

GREGORY WYKOFF, Plaintiff, v. WAYNE COUNTY, LALETA DOZIER, and AMINAH AL-SAEEDI, Defendants.¹

Case No. 16-12653

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

June 12, 2018

HON. AVERN COHN

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (Doc. 32)

I. INTRODUCTION

This is a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 case. Plaintiff Gregory Wykoff (Wykoff) is suing defendants Wayne County, Nurse Laleta Dozier (Dozier), and Nurse Practitioner Aminah Al-Saeedi (Al-Saeedi) for violating his Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights by failing to administer sufficient insulin while he was in the custody of the Wayne County jail.

Wykoff's amended complaint is in four counts:

• Count I: Violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments;

• Count II: Violation of the Eighth Amendment;• Count III: False/Wrongful Arrest and False Imprisonment;

• Count IV: Willful and Wanton Misconduct, and Deliberate Indifference/Gross Negligence.

(Doc. 10). The parties stipulated the dismissal of the City of Wyandotte and the individual Wyandotte police officers, (Doc. 33); Wykoff admits that this rendered Count III moot. Wykoff seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.

The remaining defendants have moved for summary judgment, (Doc. 32), to which Wykoff has responded, (Doc. 35), and defendants have replied. (Doc. 37). For the reasons that follow, defendants' motion is GRANTED.

II. BACKGROUND

A.

Wykoff was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes in 2001. At relevant times, his treatment consisted of taking 10 units of short-acting insulin three times a day with meals and 45 units of long-acting insulin once a day in the evening.

Diabetics take insulin in order to reduce their blood glucose level. A glucose level that is too high or too low can cause serious medical problems. (Al-Saeedi Dep. 11-13).

B.

The relevant facts from the following narrative are attached in chronological form as an appendix.

Around 7:15 p.m. on March 20, 2015, Wykoff was booked into the Wayne County jail in Hamtramck, Michigan, to serve a 13-day sentence for probation violation. He told booking staff that he was a diabetic and had not had insulin "for almost a day-and-a-half, two days." (Wykoff Dep. 29). A staff member responded that he would have to tell the nurse. (Id.).

Around 9:35 p.m., non-party medical assistant LaShawn Robinson² (Robinson) performed a routine medical intake screening. Wykoff told Robinson he had a history of diabetes, hypertension, neuropathy, heart attack, and pain, which she noted on his intake form. (Doc. 32-7). Wykoff did not complain about diabetes-related symptoms at this time. He said he told a nurse (presumably Robinson) how much insulin he usually took. (Wykoff Dep. 29). See supra § II.A.

Wykoff's glucose level was checked by an unknown medical staff member at 11:45 p.m. (Doc. 32-9). The reading was 336, which Dozier said is high but not surprising for a diabetic. (Dozier Dep. 67). Wykoff said he told a nurse (presumably the one who checked his glucose on this occasion; the deposition does not specify) that he had been without insulin. (Wykoff Dep. 29). The medical chart indicates that no insulin was administered at this time and the word "initial" appears next to that indication. (Doc. 32-9).

Regarding the lack of insulin administration after Wykoff's initial glucose check, Al-Saeedi and Dozier said that the medical staff knows that inmates eat at registration and that eating causes glucose to rise. No insulin is immediately administered to a new diabetic inmate because the staff want to see how far the glucose level will drop on its own. Glucose will plummet if too much insulin is administered too soon, which can leadto serious medical complications. (Dozier Dep. 62-63; Al-Saeedi Dep. 9, 13, 41-43). In his deposition, Wykoff acknowledged that receiving too much insulin is dangerous. (Wykoff Dep. 96).

Around 1:30 a.m. on March 21, 2015, Wykoff saw Dozier for a psychiatric evaluation. Dozier said that inmates with medical issues are "flagged" for follow-up at intake, and that Wykoff was most likely flagged because he was taking Xanax, a psychiatric medication. At the evaluation, Dozier ordered a standard sliding scale for insulin administration. The sliding scale used at the Wayne County jail is one that is commonly used in the medical profession. (Dozier Dep. 9-13). Al-Saeedi testified that a nurse has authority to put an inmate on the sliding scale unless the glucose level is over 400, in which case the nurse must contact the on-call doctor or nurse practitioner. Also, the nurse must eventually confirm the sliding scale order with the on-call doctor or nurse practitioner, (Al-Saeedi Dep. 8, 39), which Dozier later did. (Doc. 32-11). Dozier said that the sliding scale can be adjusted with permission from a doctor or nurse practitioner. (Dozier Dep. 17).

Dozier did not administer any insulin to Wykoff when she ordered the sliding scale. Regarding the decision to wait, Dozier said:

You don't want to give them a lot of insulin in the middle of the night where they're not going to have any access to food and you don't know how they respond to it. So it's better to keep them a little elevated and get them back on a schedule where you can monitor them; especially in the course of the day. I don't want to do too much in the middle of the night.

(Dozier Dep. 62). Dozier also said that if Wykoff had complained of diabetes-related symptoms at the time of the psychiatric evaluation, she would have noted it on the evaluation form (Dozier Dep. 66). No such note appears on the form (Doc. 35-5).

Around 4:00 a.m., when all diabetics in the jail typically have their glucose levels checked, nurse Brenda Williams (Williams) measured Wykoff's glucose. It was now 275, which meant that it had fallen without the administration of any insulin. Williams then administered four units of insulin per the sliding scale order.³ (Doc. 32-11).

Before 7:10 a.m., Dozier contacted Al-Saeedi on the phone regarding Wykoff. Al-Saeedi approved the sliding scale order for short-acting insulin and also ordered 20 units of long-acting insulin to be taken at dinner time. (Doc. 32-11; Dozier Dep. 50).

At some point, Wykoff started to feel sick while in his cell. He initially told no one that he felt sick, but later he told a pod guard. The guard told him he had to wait. His symptoms got worse and he started to vomit; he told a guard that he needed medical attention. The guard asked Wykoff why he waited so long to say something. The guard then sent Wykoff to the jail medical clinic. (Wykoff Dep. 36).

At the clinic, non-party nurse Mildred Neal (Neal) examined Wykoff around 2:45 p.m. Jail records indicate she observed that Wykoff was vomiting blood, sweating heavily, and experiencing weakness and an elevated heart rate. She also checked his glucose, which she noted at 318, and observed large urine ketones. These symptoms are consistent with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a serious condition that requires hospitalization. Neal phoned Al-Saeedi, who directed that Wykoff be taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital. He was transported to the hospital around 3:38 p.m.

C.

At Detroit Receiving Hospital, Wykoff was diagnosed with and treated for DKA. After being released from the hospital on March 24, 2015, Wykoff did not return to the jail. He was placed on a tether for the remainder of his sentence. On July 15, 2016, Wykoff filed the present lawsuit.

III. LEGAL STANDARD

Summary judgment will be granted if the moving party demonstrates that there is "no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). There is no genuine issue of material fact when "the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587 (1986). The Court must decide "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." In re Dollar Corp., 25 F.3d 1320, 1323 (6th Cir. 1994) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52 (1986)). In doing so, the Court "must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party." Emp'rs Ins. of Wausau v. Petrol. Specialties, Inc., 69 F.3d 98, 101-02 (6th Cir. 1995).

IV. DISCUSSION

A. Wayne County

Since no constitutional violation occurred, as discussed below, Wayne County is not liable under § 1983. Stiles ex rel. D.S. v. Grainger Cty., Tenn., 819 F.3d 834, 856 (6th Cir. 2016). Even if it was, Wykoff has not proferred evidence to support that a Wayne County policy was the "moving force of the constitutional violation." Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 694 (1978). Thus, the followingdiscussion relates only to Al-Saeedi and Dozier, the individual defendants who had direct contact with Wykoff.

B. Count I - Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments

All claims in Count I fail. Wykoff's amended complaint does not contain allegations regarding the Fourth Amendment, and Wykoff concedes that he is not entitled to relief under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Defendants are also correct to argue that Wykoff's claims do not fall within the scope of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Sixth Circuit has repeatedly held that claims of deliberate indifference to a prisoner's medical needs are to be analyzed under the framework of the Eighth Amendment, not under the substantive due process framework of the Fourteenth Amendment. Burgess v. Fischer, 735 F.3d 462, 476 (6th Cir. 2013) ("The deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners . . . constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain proscribed by the Eighth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause governs such claims presented by pretrial detainees.") (citing Estelle v. Gamble, 429...