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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
FRANK JONES,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
JAMES A. VAN FLEIT,
Defendant-Appellee.
No. 01-4303
49 Fed. Appx. 626
October 9, 2002 *, Submitted
* After an examination of the briefs and the record, we have
concluded that oral argument is unnecessary. Thus, the
appeal is submitted on the briefs and the record. See Fed.
R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
October 11, 2002, Decided
NOTICE:RULES OF THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS MAY LIMIT CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS. PLEASE REFER TO THE RULES OF THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THIS CIRCUIT.
Frank Jones
brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging a violation of his Eighth
Amendment rights. Jones, an Indiana prisoner, asserts that Dr. James A. Van
Fleit failed to provide him with proper medical care after he injured his left
eye. The district court granted Dr. Van Fleit's motion for summary judgment,
and Jones filed a timely appeal. We affirm.
The
relevant facts are undisputed. On August 10, 1998, Jones was poked in the left
eye by another inmate while the two were playing basketball. On August 11, a prison physician treated Jones and
determined that he had suffered a subconjunctival hemorrhage, or a torn blood
vessel in the eye. The prison physician referred Jones to Dr. Van Fleit, a
privately employed optometrist who provides part-time vision services to
inmates under a contract with the state
prison system. When Dr. Van Fleit examined Jones around August 26, Jones
complained of blurred vision in his left eye but did not complain of light
flashes or floaters (partial vision obstructions), the classic signs of a torn
retina. Dr. Van Fleit saw no evidence of injury to the left eye beyond the
subconjunctival hemorrhage, which had already cleared. And although one
procedure he conducted allowed him to view the posterior chamber of the eye,
including the retina, Dr. Van Fleit saw no sign of retinal damage such as a
tear, hole or hemorrhage. Ultimately he prescribed eyeglasses to correct Jones'
vision.
On
September 30, 1998, Jones was again referred to Dr. Van Fleit. This time he
complained that his vision was blurry and green, and Dr. Van Fleit discovered a
partial retinal tear and other signs of injury in Jones' left eye. Dr. Van Fleit immediately
referred Jones to Wishard Memorial Hospital, where he received emergency care and has since
undergone several surgeries to treat the retinal tear. Jones asserts that if
his injury had been treated immediately, he would have suffered few if any
negative results from his injury. As it is, however, Jones will permanently
have blurred vision and sensitivity to light in his left eye.
The district court concluded that Dr. Van Fleit acted under
color of state law for purposes of § 1983 when he treated Jones, see West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 54, 101 L. Ed.
2d 40, 108 S. Ct. 2250 (1988), but nonetheless granted summary judgment for the
physician because Jones had presented no evidence that Dr. Van Fleit acted with
deliberate indifference. We review de novo the grant of summary judgment and
construe the record and all reasonable inferences drawn from it in [*628]
the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Del Raso v. United States, 244 F.3d 567, 570
(7th Cir. 2001). Summary judgment is appropriate when the moving party
demonstrates the absence of a genuine issue of material fact for trial, Fed. R.
Civ. Pro. 56(c), or when the non-moving party fails to make a showing
sufficient to prove an element on which he will bear the burden of proof at
trial, Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324-25, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265, 106 S.
Ct. 2548 (1986).
The Eighth
Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment requires that
states provide their prisoners with proper medical care. See Estelle v. Gamble,
429 U.S. 97, 103, 50 L. Ed. 2d 251, 97 S. Ct. 285 (1976). A mere failure to
provide medical care, however, does not automatically violate the Eighth
Amendment. A prisoner must meet a two-part test to prove a constitutional
deprivation: (1) the prisoner must show that his medical needs were
"objectively, sufficiently serious," and (2) the prisoner must
demonstrate that a prison official was deliberately indifferent to those needs. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834, 128 L.
Ed. 2d 811, 114 S. Ct. 1970 (1994).
The first
element is an objective one. A prisoner's medical need is objectively serious
if it is "'one that has been diagnosed by a physician as mandating
treatment or one that is so obvious that even a lay person would easily
recognize the necessity for a doctor's attention.'" Zentmyer v.
Kendall County, Ill., 220 F.3d 805, 810 (7th Cir. 2000) (quoting Gutierrez v. Peters, 111 F.3d 1364,
1373 (7th Cir. 1997)). Dr.
Van Fleit agrees that, in hindsight, Jones' injury was serious. Thus this
appeal turns on whether Dr. Van Fleit was deliberately indifferent to that
injury.
The second
element is subjective. To prove deliberate indifference, the prisoner must show
that the prison official "was subjectively aware of the prisoner's serious
medical needs and disregarded an excessive risk that a lack of treatment posed
to a prisoner's health or safety." Wynn v. Southward, 251 F.3d 588, 593
(7th Cir. 2001). Jones never demonstrated a genuine issue of material fact on
this point. He essentially contends that the course of treatment provided by
Dr. Van Fleit was insufficient, but an inmate's disagreement with the course of
treatment cannot establish deliberate indifference. Snipes v. DeTella, 95 F.3d
586, 591 (7th Cir. 1996). At best Jones alleges that Dr. Van Fleit provided
negligent medical care, but mere negligence is not enough to prove a
constitutional violation. Peate v.
McCann, 294 F.3d 879, 882 (7th Cir. 2002). Since Jones offered no evidence that
his injury was readily apparent and that Dr. Van Fleit either ignored the
injury or deliberately failed to provide proper treatment, his arguments
fail. Steele v. Choi, 82 F.3d 175, 179
(7th Cir. 1996).
AFFIRMED.