Judge Joseph Bianco
Medina was a Nassau County Correctional Center (NCCC) inmate from March 2009 to Jan. 13, 2011. His Dec. 30, 2010, complaint under 42 USC §1983 alleged NCCC medical personnel misdiagnosed his kidney stones, and guards at NCCC denied him medical attention for six hours while he experienced severe pain and other symptoms associated with kidney stones—subsequently removed surgically. Medina's grievance form was dated Oct. 27, 2010. Construing Medina's complaint to name the County of Nassau as defendant, the court granted the county summary judgment and sua sponte dismissed Medina's complaint against the Nassau County Medical Center's staff. Discussing Woodford v. Ngo it held Medina did not exhaust his administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Not only was his grievance properly returned as "too vague to understand," his failure to appeal also required dismissal of his lawsuit. Further, Medina inadequately alleged that the administrative grievance procedure was not "available" to him due to a misrepresentation by prison officials. Nor did Medina plausibly argue the existence of that special circumstances warranting excusal from the proper exhaustion requirement.
