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Abstract: 

In baseball an errant pitch—a ball—may be a sliver from the strike zone or it may be bouncing freakishly around the backstop. In jail and prison, for a health care decision to meet the standard of “deliberate indifference” it must be the equivalent of a wild pitch that soars over the umpire and catcher. In this article, we examine the chain of suboptimal decisions made on behalf of plaintiff Griffin, who exhibited severe symptoms that proved to be kidney failure while detained for attempted robbery under the care of Southern Health Partners. The 6th Circuit ruling shows how difficult the courts are finding it to apply Kingsley in health care cases, even those where the care provided is well below standards.

Keywords: Deliberate Indifference Standard; Griffin v. Franklin Co., Ky.; Kingsley v. Hendrickson

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.