Preston v. Cnty. of Macomb, Case No. 18-12158
| Decision Date | 24 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 18-12158 |
| Parties | Jessica Lynn Preston, Plaintiff, v. County of Macomb, Sheriff Anthony M. Wickersham, Correct Care Solutions, LLC, Lawrence Sherman, David Arft, Temitipe Olagbaiye, Monica Cueny, Cynthia Deview, Amanda Bishop, Jaclyn Lubanski, and Jeffrey Rattray, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
This is a civil rights case about a pretrial detainee's right to adequate medical care. Plaintiff Jessica Lynn Preston alleges that defendants were deliberately indifferent to her serious medical needs during the labor and delivery of her son while she was in detention at the Macomb County Jail. Preston originally brought her claims against defendants Macomb County, Sheriff Anthony M. Wickersham, Corrections Officer ("CO") Jeffrey Rattray, Correct Care Solutions, LLC ("CCS"), which is Macomb County's medical care contractor, and its employees Dr. Lawrence Sherman, David Arft, Temitipe Olagbaiye, Monica Cueny, Cynthia Deview, Amanda Bishop, and Jaclyn Lubanski. All defendants except Deview, Bishop, Lubanski, and Macomb County were dismissed due to earlier motions to dismiss and by stipulation of the parties. Now before the Court is Preston's motion seeking leave to amend her complaint to bring CCS and Dr. Sherman back into this litigation, add CO Holmes and John Doe COs, and expand upon her earlier allegations against Deview, Bishop, Lubanski, and Macomb County.
On March 15, 2016, Preston was arrested for driving on a suspended license, and a state district judge ordered her to be detained at the Macomb County Jail, despite the fact that she was eight months pregnant.1 (ECF No. 46-1, PageID.558-59.) At 5:00 p.m. that day, she was medically screened by defendant Cynthia Deview, a registered nurse. (Id. at PageID.558.) Deview noted that Preston used heroin daily, had been treated for substance abuse previously, and was eight months pregnant. (Id. at PageID.558-59.) Deview designated Preston's pregnancy as a "Supplementary Normal Pregnancy" and "Acute" medical condition. (Id.) Preston's pregnancy was "high risk" because she had placentae abruption during her previous pregnancy, which required a C-section. (Id. at PageID.560.) For this pregnancy, she was scheduled for a C-section just over a month later on April 26, 2016, at a local hospital. (Id.) Preston was placed in the general population. (Id. at PageID.559.)
Around 6:00 p.m., Preston believed she was having contractions that were lasting for one minute. (Id.) Deview and another registered nurse, Monica Franks, examined her in the medical unit. (Id.) Franks documented that Preston's contractions lasted for fifteen to thirty seconds. (Id.) Ultimately, Deview and Franks determined that Preston was not having contractions and did not need further medical attention. (ECF No. 39, PageID.434.)2 Deview recommended that she "drink fluids and report to a nurse if contractions changed." (Id.)
An hour and a half later, Preston thought her water broke. (Id. at PageID.343-44.) Defendant Amanda Bishop, a Licensed Practical Nurse ("LPN"), examined her in the medical unit. (ECF No. 46-1, PageID.559-60.) Bishop found no amniotic fluid, and a litmus test confirmed there was none. (Id. at PageID.560.) Bishop determined that Preston's water had not broken, and Preston was sent back to her cell in the general population "without difficulty" and "appeared to be in no distress." (ECF No. 39, PageID.433.)
Two uneventful days passed. Then, on March 17, 2016, Temitipe Olagbaiye, a nurse practitioner, examined Preston with Bishop present. (ECF No. 46-1, PageID.560.) Plaintiff had "ongoing whitish vaginal discharge" and what Olagbaiye diagnosed as "abnormal false contraction[s]." (ECF No. 39, PageID.364.) He noted that Preston had been feeling "adequate" "fetal kick." (Id.) Olagbaiye also recorded that Preston's urinalysis was not positive for opiates at the time of her incarceration. (Id.) Olagbaiye created what plaintiff calls a "treatment plan," which stated: "[p]atient pregnancy will be uneventful while in incarceration 'till delivery."
Three days later, on March 20, 2016, at 6:45 a.m., Preston used a medical emergency intercom to request that she be taken to the medical unit. (Id. at PageID.561-62.) Bishop and Deview examined her between 7:07 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. (Id. at PageID.562.) She told Bishop and Deview "that her pain was intense and the time between her contractions was decreasing." (Id.) Deview told Preston "that she was not impressed with Plaintiff's contractions" and sent her back to her cell. (Id.) Deview determined that Preston was not having contractions because her abdomen was not tightening, her skin was "warm and dry," and she was not visibly in pain. (See ECF No. 39, PageID.416.)
From when Preston was escorted back to her cell at 7:30 a.m. until noon, she alleges that she remained "in severe pain" and continued to have contractions that were lasting longer and occurring more frequently. (ECF No. 46-1, PageID.563.) Around noon, she requested via intercom that she be examined "by a physician or be sent to the hospital." (Id.) During this time, Preston was not actively monitored or supervised by medical staff. (Id.) At 12:20 p.m., a John Doe CO escorted her to the medical unit. (Id.)
Defendant Jaclyn Lubanski, an LPN, sat with Preston outside of the medical unit while she described her intensifying pain and more intense and frequent contractions. (Id. at PageID.564.) Lubanski did not bring Preston inside the medical unit or examine her in any manner except for putting a medical device, likely a pulse oximeter, on her finger. (Id.) Bishop was also present. (Id.) She did not examine Preston either, but said "that she was 'not impressed' with Plaintiff's contractions" and told her to stop making false medical complaints, otherwise she could be charged for doing so. (Id. (quotations in original).) Bishop also warned Preston that she could be reprimanded for making false complaints if she came down to the medical unit again claiming to be in labor. (Id.) This interaction lasted fourteen minutes. (Id.) A John Doe CO escorted Preston back to her cell at 12:35 p.m. (Id.) The CO warned her to "knock her shit off or they wouldn't believe her if something really happened." (Id. at PageID.564-65.)
At 1:00 p.m., Preston's pain level became "a ten . . . out of ten. . ." and she had "intense" vaginal bleeding. (Id. at PageID.565.) Preston used the medical emergency intercom to tell the medical control tower that she was bleeding and to request that she be taken to the hospital. (Id.) At the same time, Lubanski and a second John Doe CO were in Preston's unit passing out medications, and she told them she was bleeding and asked to be taken to the hospital. (Id.) She also showed them a bloody tissue that she had used as a sanitary pad. (Id.) The CO told her, "sit your ass down" because "they [are] not ready to deal with [you] now." (Id.)
For the next thirty minutes, Preston's contractions intensified, her pain worsened, and her bleeding continued. (Id. at PageID.566.) After Lubanski and the John Doe CO finished passing out medications, the CO told her to "pack up all of your shit because you're going to be housed in medical." (Id.) Then CO Holmes escorted her to the medical unit. (Id.) During this time, Preston told Holmes that she was in great pain and her bleeding was getting worse. (Id.)
At 1:30 p.m., Preston arrived in the medical unit. (Id.) Deview looked at Preston and saw that she had blood covering her upper thighs and determined that Preston was having her "bloody show."3 (Id. at PageID.566-67.) She or another nurse made a telephone call to Dr. Lawrence Sherman, the Chief Medical Director of Macomb County Jail, to notify him of this development. (Id. at PageID.10, PageID.566-67.) Dr. Sherman took no action and provided no instructions to the nurses. (Id. at PageID.567.) Again, Preston told Bishop and Deview that she needed to be taken to the hospital. (Id.) Deview told her: "[W]e will not allow your baby to be born in the jail." (Id.) The nurses put Preston in a medical unit cell that had not been cleaned after another inmate occupied it. (Id.) Between 1:35 p.m. and 1:56 p.m., she was left unmonitored in the cell. (Id. at PageID.567-68.)
Then, Preston's labor accelerated. She felt extreme pressure, and her bleeding worsened. (Id. at PageID.568.) At 1:58 p.m., her water broke, and she yelled for assistance. (Id.) Deview entered the cell to assist her. (Id.) One of the three nurses called Dr. Sherman to tell him that Preston's water had broken and that she was still bleeding. (Id.) Dr. Sherman ordered the nurses to time her contractions and call him back. (Id. at PageID.569.) Deview timed Preston's contractions, which were one minute long and two minutes apart. (ECF No. 39, PageID.408.) Nothing in the record indicates that Deview, Bishop, or Lubanski called Dr. Sherman back or that Dr. Sherman called them for a report on Preston's labor.
At 2:25 p.m., Deview saw the child's head crowning. (ECF No. 46-1, PageID.569.) Two minutes later, either Deview, Bishop, or Lubanski called Dr. Sherman, and he called for an ambulance.4 (Id.) An ambulance arrived at 2:35 p.m., but emergency personnel would not transport Preston to the hospital (id. at PageID.569-70), presumably because she was too close to delivery. At some point, Preston was moved to the floor of the cell, and her son was born at 2:40 p.m. on a floor mat. (Id. at PageID.569; ECF No. 39, PageID.408.) Based on her medical records, it appears that Preston was sent back to Macomb County as early as three days after the birth of her son and that she remained detained...
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