Martinez Aytch v. Cynthia Sablica

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Martinez Aytch (Aytch) challenges the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants on his claims that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to Aytch’s dental and vision problems.

1. The district court erred in granting summary judgment on Aytch’s claim that responsible prison officials were deliberately indifferent to Aytch’s dental problems. Aytch raised a triable issue that, despite numerous medical requests and complaints of severe pain, responsible prison officials failed to timely address Aytch’s dental problems and the resulting pain. See Hunt v. Dental Dep’t, 865 F.2d 198, 200 (9th Cir.1989) (holding that delay of treatment where prison officials were aware that the lack of dental treatment caused pain, infection, and inability to eat was “sufficient to state a claim of deliberate medical indifference under section 1983”) (citation omitted).

On September 7, 2008, Aytch filed an informal grievance alerting prison officials that he had submitted five medical kites regarding his tooth and that he was in “awful pain,” which James Henson, the Grievance Coordinator, denied. On October 7, 2008, Henson signed for a first-level…