Pyles v. Fahim, No. 14-1752 (7th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePyles, an Illinois prisoner, injured his back when he slipped on wet stairs at Menard Correctional Center. Pyles sometimes used those stairs when showering, and a month before his fall he had alerted the warden, Gaetz, that this stairway can be treacherous because of the water tracked from the nearby showers. Pyles sued under 42 U.S.C. 1983, claiming that Gaetz was deliberately indifferent to the hazard, and that Wexford Health, which provides contract medical care to Menard inmates, and a Wexford physician, Fahim, were deliberately indifferent to his back injury. Pyles alleged that, after initially being treated for his fall, he suffered ongoing, significant pain, yet Dr. Fahim refused to investigate its cause. At screening, (28 U.S.C. 1915A) the district court dismissed the claim against the warden. A magistrate judge later granted summary judgment for Wexford and Dr. Fahim on the medical claim. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The slipping hazard about which Pyles complained was not sufficiently dangerous to support an Eighth Amendment claim. From the evidence submitted at summary judgment, a finder of fact could not reasonably conclude that Pyles’s medical claim rests on more than a disagreement with Dr. Fahim about the appropriate course of treatment.
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