White v. Bukowski, No. 14-3185 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseWhen she arrived at the Kankakee jail on suspicion of conspiring to commit bank fraud, plaintiff was almost eight months pregnant. She experienced pains 11 days later and was taken to a hospital, where she gave birth. Plaintiff claims that the child suffered serious birth defects because of oxygen deprivation attributable to a displacement of the placenta. She was returned to the jail several days after the birth but remained there for only four days before being transferred to another jail. Two months later, having been shifted among several jails, she pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to 50 months in prison. She filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 two years later, alleging that defendants failed to take a proper medical history when she was first placed in jail; failed to respond to several requests for medical assistance; and failed to react quickly when she went into labor The court dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies through the correctional system. The Seventh Circuit reversed. Even if plaintiff had been told upon her return from the hospital that she had only four days to file a grievance, that deadline was unreasonably short for a woman who had just given birth to a severely impaired child. She was effectively prevented from filing a grievance.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.