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Abstract: 

Thomas Martin Bismark, a Florida inmate who suffered from foot pain resulting from a congenital foot deformity, brought an Eighth Amendment action against the Chief Medical Director of the Everglades Correctional Institution (ECI) based upon the failure to provide him with prescribed orthopedic shoes. In Gaviria v. Reynolds, 276 F.3d 940 (2007), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has held that Humberto Antonio Gaviria, a civil litigant who brought a medical malpractice action relating to the treatment of a fractured jaw incurred during his arrest, did not have a guaranteed right to counsel. Gaviria was struck on the right side of his face during his arrest in 1989. While in a DC jail in 1994, he began to experience severe headaches and pain in his right jaw. Ryan v. Aina, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS32050 (11th Cir. December 29, 2006) considered the appeal of Steve Dennis Ryan, a state inmate in Georgia who had filed a civil rights action based on deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, and whose motion for the appointment of counsel was denied. Ryan had been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) while he was incarcerated at Rutledge State Prison.

Keywords: prison-issued boots, arch inserts, TMJ, amicus curiae, Prilosec, antacids

Affiliations:  1: Pace University School of Law Library.