Mattox v. Edelman

• Decision Date: 15 March 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-1412,16-1412
• Citation: 851 F.3d 583
• Parties: Todd MATTOX, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Adam EDELMAN, M.D.; Corizon Health, Inc., Defendants, Adrianne Neff, P.A.; Haresh Pandya, M.D.; Kenneth Jordan, M.D.; William Borgerding, D.O., Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

851 F.3d 583

Todd MATTOX, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v. Adam EDELMAN, M.D.; Corizon Health, Inc., Defendants,Adrianne Neff, P.A.; Haresh Pandya, M.D.; Kenneth Jordan, M.D.; William Borgerding, D.O., Defendants–Appellees.

No. 16-1412

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: January 25, 2017

Decided and Filed: March 15, 2017

Rehearing Denied April 6, 2017

ARGUED: Susan M. Razzano, EIMER STAHL LLP, Chicago, Illinois, for Appellant. Carly Van Thomme, CHAPMAN LAW GROUP, Troy, Michigan, for Appellee Neff. Allan J. Soros, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees Pandya and Borgerding. ON BRIEF: Susan M. Razzano, EIMER STAHL LLP, Chicago, Illinois, David M. Shapiro, SOLANGE MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER, Chicago, Illinois, for Appellant. Carly Van Thomme, Ronald W. Chapman, Kevin A. McQuillan, CHAPMAN LAW GROUP, Troy, Michigan, for Appellee Neff. Kevin Himebaugh, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees Pandya and Borgerding.

Before: MERRITT, CLAY, and DONALD, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Todd Mattox, a Michigan prisoner, appeals from the orders entered by the district court granting various dispositive motions filed against Mattox's Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims against three doctors and a physician's assistant who allegedly provided him deficient care for his heart condition. On appeal, Mattox argues that the district court erred in: (i) granting summary judgment on his claims against Defendants Haresh Pandya and William Borgerding for failure to exhaust administrative remedies; (ii) sua sponte dismissing his claims against Defendant Kenneth Jordan for failure to exhaust administrative remedies; and (iii) granting Defendant Adrianne Neff's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. We have subject matter jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM IN PART and REVERSE IN PART the district court's judgment, and REMAND for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

I. Factual History

Mattox is currently an inmate at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. During most of the events relevant to this lawsuit, Mattox was an inmate at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan.

On July 25, 2011, Mattox complained to prison medical officials that he was experiencing pain and tightness in his chest, neck, shoulders, and arms, as well as shortness of breath, fatigue, and dizziness. The nurse on duty performed an electrocardiogram ("EKG") test, which indicated a sinus rhythm with left axis deviation. After this test, Mattox was taken to the emergency room, where he was seen by an outside cardiologist. On July 26, 2011, the outside cardiologist performed an echo stress test on Mattox's heart, which suggested a possible ischemia in the heart's basal inferior wall.¹ The cardiologist recommended that Mattox undergo a cardiac catheterization procedure to rule out coronary artery disease, and determine whether he needed a stent or surgery in order to prevent a future heart attack.

Mattox's request for a cardiac catheterization procedure was referred to Defendant Adam Edelman, an employee of Defendant Corizon Health, Inc., for approval.² Corizon is a health care contractor for the Michigan Department of Corrections, and employed all of the doctors and physician's assistants Mattox has sued in this lawsuit. Dr. Edelman reviewed Mattox's EKG results, and was not convinced that a cardiac catheterization was necessary; accordingly, he denied approval for the procedure.

Mattox was thereafter briefly hospitalized at the Duane L. Waters Hospital, a prison hospital associated with the Michigan Department of Corrections, and was released back to the Cotton Facility on August 2, 2011, with instructions to seek immediate evaluation if his chest pains recurred. On August 3, 2011, Mattox filed an administrative grievance with the prison numbered JCF–2011–08–1632–1202 ("JCF–1632" or "first grievance"), naming Dr. Edelman, and requesting the cardiac catheterization test that the outside cardiologists had recommended. After the grievance was denied, Mattox fully exhausted his appeals pursuant to Michigan Department of Corrections policy, but did not obtain any relief.

At about 11:00 p.m. on August 14, 2011, Mattox experienced the same symptoms he had complained of on July 25, 2011. He immediately reported to the prison's infirmary, notified the nurse on duty of his symptoms, and told her that the nitroglycerine tablets he had been given during his last hospitalization were not working. The nurse performed an EKG on Mattox, and then called an off-site physician's assistant, Defendant Adrianne Neff, and left P.A. Neff a voicemail message describing the EKG results, Mattox's recent hospital stay, and the records of the stress test Mattox received on July 26, 2011. P.A. Neff returned the nurse's call, and ordered that Mattox be sent back to his housing unit rather than to the emergency room.

The next morning, Mattox's chest pains continued, and he reported to the prison's attending physician, Dr. Karen Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes did not prescribe Mattox any new medication, but instead sent him to the emergency room, where outside doctors once again recommended that Mattox undergo a cardiac catheterization test. After Mattox returned to the prison, Dr. Rhodes prescribed a medication called Imdur, but later took Mattox off of that medication because it caused Mattox intolerable dizziness. Dr. Rhodes once again asked Dr. Edelman for authorization to perform a cardiac catheterization test, but Dr. Edelman denied the request.

On August 18, 2011, Mattox filed another grievance numbered JCF–2011–08–1747–12DI ("JCF–1747" or "second grievance"), complaining that P.A. Neff did not send him to the hospital as requested on the evening of August 14, 2011. Mattox was denied relief at all steps of this grievance, and his appeals were finally exhausted on December 8, 2011.

On September 18, 2011, Mattox filed a third grievance numbered JCF–2011–09–1974–12D1 ("JCF–1974" or "third grievance"), complaining that his medication was ineffective at controlling his cardiac symptoms. This grievance was also denied at every administrative step, and was finally exhausted on December 28, 2011.

In October 2011, Mattox's chest pains once again returned, and once again he was sent to the emergency room. While there, an outside cardiologist recommended that Mattox be started on a heart drug called Ranexa. However, Ranexa was not on the prison's formulary, and so Dr. Rhodes was required to seek the approval of Defendant Haresh Pandya before Ranexa could be given to Mattox. On October 12, 2011, Dr. Pandya denied permission to give Mattox Ranexa, and instead ordered Mattox to remain on medication that had previously made him dizzy.

Mattox's chest pains continued intermittently over the next two and a half years, requiring multiple hospitalizations. Of note during this period, on April 23, 2012, Mattox finally received the cardiac catheterization test he had been seeking, which ruled out heart disease, and suggested that his symptoms be treated with medication. After a hospitalization for chest pain in March 2013, Mattox's outside doctors once again recommended that he be prescribed Ranexa, rather than the Imdur and other medications prison officials had been giving him, because those medications had proven ineffective at controlling his pain. Mattox requested Ranexa from Defendant Kenneth Jordan in early 2013, but was denied; Dr. Jordan gave Mattox another prescription for Imdur instead.

On April 4, 2013, Mattox filed a fourth grievance numbered LCF 2013–04–0355–12D1 ("LCF–0355" or "fourth grievance"), alleging that the medications prison officials were giving him were ineffective at controlling his pain, and requesting the Ranexa several outside doctors had prescribed him. This grievance, like the others, was denied at every step and was finally exhausted on June 24, 2014.

After yet another hospitalization in mid-June 2013, Mattox was finally given a six-month prescription for Ranexa by Dr. Pandya. Mattox did not experience any cardiac symptoms during those six months. In January 2014, after the Ranexa prescription ran out, Mattox's chest pains returned. Mattox sought a renewal of his Ranexa prescription, but was informed by a physician's assistant that Defendant William Borgerding had denied approval because Corizon felt that Ranexa was too expensive. Dr. Borgerding persisted in his refusal to provide Mattox with Ranexa even after Mattox was hospitalized again while on Imdur.

On February 4, 2014, Mattox filed a fifth grievance numbered LCF 2014–02–0159–12F3 ("LCF–0159" or "fifth grievance"), again complaining about his Ranexa denials. This grievance was denied at every step and fully exhausted on June 24, 2014.

II. Procedural History

On August 24, 2012, after exhausting his first three grievances, Mattox filed a pro se complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan against Dr. Edelman and P.A. Neff alleging deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Eighth Amendment. As to P.A. Neff, Mattox alleged that she was deliberately indifferent by not sending to him to the emergency room on August 14, 2011, when he presented to the prison infirmary with chest pains. On July 30, 2013, the district court adopted a magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation and granted P.A. Neff's motion to dismiss, concluding that Mattox had not pled that he suffered from an objectively serious medical need on August 14, 2011.

Mattox v. Edelman , No. 12-13762, 2013 WL 3936424, at *3–4 (E.D. Mich. July 30, 2013).

Subsequently, Mattox sought leave to amend his complaint to add claims against additional defendants. The district court granted this motion as to Dr. Pandya, and the magistrate judge later granted Mattox leave to add Dr. Jordan, Dr. Borgerding, and Corizon as defendants.

Mattox's...