The opinion
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 24-1694
KELSEY JILL SMITH, as Administrator of the Estate of Dalynn
Kee, and on behalf of her Next of Kin,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
MICHAEL WHITSEL,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Central District of Illinois.
No. 20-2203 — Sara Darrow, Chief Judge.
____________________
ARGUED MARCH 4, 2025 — DECIDED APRIL 17, 2025
____________________
Before BRENNAN, ST. EVE, and MALDONADO, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM. Dalynn Kee died of dehydration while de-
tained at the Macon County Jail in Decatur, Illinois. The ad-
ministrator of Kee’s estate sued (among others) correctional
officer Michael Whitsel, alleging that he violated Kee’s consti-
tutional rights by denying her access to medical care when
she became violently ill from opioid withdrawal. Whitsel
moved for summary judgment on the ground of qualified
2 No. 24-1694
immunity, but the district court denied his motion because
genuine issues of material fact precluded the defense “at this
stage.”
Whitsel filed an interlocutory appeal. But whether he en-
joys qualified immunity depends on the resolution of dis-
puted facts, so the collateral order doctrine does not confer
jurisdiction. We therefore dismiss this appeal.
I
We recount the facts in the light most favorable to Kee, the
non-moving party, addressing only the facts relevant to
Whitsel’s appeal. See McGee v. Parsano, 55 F.4th 563, 566
(7th Cir. 2022).
On October 7, 2019, Kee was arrested and detained at the
Macon County Jail. During the intake process, she told staff
she was receiving methadone for opioid use disorder and had
experienced withdrawal symptoms in the past. At first, Kee
was placed on the jail’s withdrawal protocol, which consisted
of periodic assessments and medication to manage symptoms
of withdrawal like nausea, diarrhea, anxiety, and restlessness.
But on October 13, nursing staff ended the protocol.
On October 16, after Kee refused to eat and reported vom-
iting, jail staff moved her to the medical unit. That unit had
two cells, both equipped with motion-activated video cam-
eras that allowed staff to watch the occupants remotely. The
parties dispute whether nurses or correctional officers had
primary responsibility for observing detainees in medical
cells, but for the purpose of this appeal, we assume the cor-
rectional officers have “primary observation responsibility.”
The critical events in this case took place on October 17.
Over the night of October 16, Kee vomited more than 25
No. 24-1694 3
times. Nursing staff gave Kee anti-nausea medication first
thing in the morning, then again around 1:00 p.m. Beginning
at 2:30 p.m. Michael Whitsel was the correctional officer re-
sponsible for the medical unit. He was required to conduct
well-being checks every 30 minutes, during which he was to
observe each detainee for 10 to 12 seconds, paying special at-
tention to their movements and breathing to assess their
health and safety. When not conducting well-being checks,
Whitsel testified he spent the “majority” of his shift monitor-
ing the video feeds of the detainees.
Because correctional officers must unlock the cells for
medical staff, Whitsel opened Kee’s cell at 2:48 p.m. for a
nurse to give Kee commissary items and toilet paper. The rec-
ord does not reveal any further interactions between medical
staff and Kee until she was found unresponsive just under
four hours later.
Whitsel said he did not see anything out of the ordinary
during his well-being checks and he did not recall seeing Kee
vomiting on the video feed. Even so, Whitsel’s supervisor tes-
tified Whitsel told him Kee was vomiting around 3:30 p.m.,
and Whitsel testified that he noticed vomit on Kee’s bed
around 4:15 p.m. Whitsel also saw via video around 5:15 p.m.
that Kee was on the floor, and a few minutes later when he
delivered her dinner, he saw her hands were cramping.
Whitsel did not inform the nurse of any of these symptoms,
never asked her to examine Kee, and did not know whether
she checked on Kee.
The video feed Whitsel was purportedly monitoring
shows that Kee exhibited concerning symptoms throughout
that afternoon. Between 2:30 and 6:00 p.m., the video shows
4 No. 24-1694
Kee vomited at least seven times, including onto the floor
(three times) and onto her bed. The red vomit on the floor is
visible from 4:30 p.m. on. Kee also fell three times. Each time,
she remained on the floor for more than fifteen seconds. Dur-
ing the second fall, she hit her head on the concrete floor be-
fore she lay motionless. She eventually got back on her bed,
but just before Whitsel’s 5:56 p.m. well-being check—which
lasted about three seconds—Kee removed her soiled pants,
leaving her naked from the waist down, with her bare but-
tocks clearly visible.
At 6:01 p.m., Kee rolled onto her back, revealing her bare
legs and pubic area. She did not move again. The Estate as-
serts a jury could infer Kee died around 6:01 p.m. But Whitsel
did not notice Kee’s nudity for over ten minutes. Then Kee
did not respond to his command over the intercom to put her
pants back on. Seven minutes later, Whitsel again ordered
Kee to cover up, and again she did not respond. He informed
his supervisor, but he did not inform medical staff. At
6:22 p.m., Whitsel conducted a one-to-two second well-being
check and testified he saw Kee’s chest rising at that time. But
he did not report to the medical staff she was half-naked and
not responsive to him. Minutes after this check, at 6:30 p.m.,
Whitsel went on his meal break.
Less than five minutes later, the nurse looked into Kee’s
cell and noticed she was pale and not breathing. Staff began
CPR and called an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
There, Kee was pronounced dead. The cause of death per an
autopsy report was dehydration.
Relevant to this appeal, the administrator of Kee’s estate
sued Whitsel for failing to provide adequate medical care in
violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
No. 24-1694 5
After discovery, Whitsel moved for summary judgment. He
argued the record lacked sufficient evidence to allow a jury to
find that his actions were objectively unreasonable, and in the
alternative, he was entitled to qualified immunity.
The district court denied his motion. The court ruled that,
as a correctional officer, Whitsel had the duty to act in an ob-
jectively reasonable manner to ensure Kee’s access to ade-
quate medical care. See McGee, 55 F.4th at 569. It further con-
cluded that, if a jury credited Whitsel’s testimony that he
watched the video feeds throughout his shift, it could find
that Whitsel acted unreasonably when he failed to notify
medical staff of Kee’s symptoms. And because the parties dis-
puted the scope of Whitsel’s duty to monitor the cells, Kee’s
detention in a medical cell was not, on its own, sufficient evi-
dence that Whitsel was entitled to defer to the medical staff
for her medical care.
The district court could not determine if Whitsel was enti-
tled to qualified immunity “at this stage” because whether he
violated Kee’s constitutional rights “turns on the resolution of
factual disputes.” The court stated that, in 2019, the law
clearly established that non-medical jail staff may not ignore
a detainee in obvious medical distress. See Dobbey v. Mitchell-
Lawshea, 806 F.3d 938, 941 (7th Cir. 2015). And even if the de-
tainee was under the care of medical professionals, an officer
could not reasonably defer to them if there was reason to be-
lieve the detainee was not receiving treatment or the treat-
ment was clearly inadequate.
II
Under the collateral order doctrine, a defendant may im-
mediately appeal an order denying qualified immunity on
6 No. 24-1694
summary judgment because it “amounts to a final decision on
the defendant’s right not to stand trial.” Gant v. Hartman,
924 F.3d 445, 448 (7th Cir. 2019). But, as we have repeatedly
explained, an interlocutory appeal is available only if this
court can review the denial of qualified immunity as a matter
of law. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 319–20 (1995); see, e.g.,
Davis v. Allen, 112 F.4th 487, 492–93 (7th Cir. 2024); Stewardson
v. Biggs, 43 F.4th 732, 734 (7th Cir. 2022); Ferguson v.
McDonough, 13 F.4th 574, 579–580 (7th Cir. 2021); Koh v. Us-
tich, 933 F.3d 836, 843–44 (7th Cir. 2019); Stinson v. Gauger,
868 F.3d 516, 524–25 (7th Cir. 2017) (en banc).
We lack jurisdiction on an interlocutory appeal to review
a denial of qualified immunity when the district court’s deci-
sion, or the appellant’s argument, turns on disputes of mate-
rial fact, see Stewardson, 43 F.4th at 734, when the legal ques-
tion involves a mixed question of law and fact, see Smith v.
Finkley, 10 F.4th 725, 735 (7th Cir. 2021), or when the appellant
challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, see Davis, 112 F.4th
at 494. And we may not reconsider a district court’s determi-
nation that certain genuine issues of fact exist as to a particu-
lar point. See Bayon v. Berkebile, 29 F.4th 850, 854 (7th Cir.
2022). The line between an appealable and non-appealable is-
sue is “not always clear,” Smith, 10 F.4th at 735, but here it is.
A
Whitsel argues first that the district court applied the
wrong legal rule to evaluate his liability. He asserts that the
court applied the general rule that correctional officers may
not ignore plaintiffs in obvious distress, see, e.g., Berry v. Peter-
man, 604 F.3d 435, 440 (7th Cir. 2010), when it should have
applied the medical-deference rule, namely, that nonmedical
jail staff can defer to the professional judgment of medical
No. 24-1694 7
staff, see, e.g., King v. Kramer, 680 F.3d 1013, 1018 (7th Cir.
2013).
But the district court ruled it could not determine which
legal rule to apply because facts are in dispute. These include
whether medical staff exercised medical judgment as to Kee’s
escalating symptoms; the scope of medical and correctional
staff’s respective duties in observing and communicating in-
formation about detainees in the medical unit; what Whitsel
saw (a subject of conflicting testimony); whether Whitsel was
watching the video feed when not conducting well-being
checks (a credibility determination); and what a reasonable
lay person would have inferred from the video.
Even in Whitsel’s framing of the issue, whether he reason-
ably deferred to the professional judgment of medical staff—
and whether any such judgment was exercised here—is a
mixed question of law and fact. He has thus “interpos[ed] dis-
puted factual issues in his argument.” Smith, 10 F.4th at 735.
Specifically, Whitsel argues that undisputed evidence shows
Kee was “under the care of medical experts,” McGee, 55 F.4th
at 569, so he could reasonably defer to medical staff. But cor-
rectional staff can escape liability only when they reasonably
defer to the judgment of medical professionals. See Miranda v.
Cnty. of Lake, 900 F.3d 335, 343 (7th Cir. 2018). As previously
discussed, the district court found that disputed facts pre-
vented a finding that medical staff exercised any judgment
throughout the afternoon of October 17, and on this record we
do not second-guess that conclusion. See Gant, 924 F.3d at 448.
Further, Whitsel cites no authority to show that when de-
tainees are housed in medical units, correctional officers have
no constitutional duties as to their medical needs. Rather, he
submits that if Whitsel could not defer to medical staff in this
8 No. 24-1694
circumstance, it “would strain the division of labor” in a cor-
rectional setting. But here, Whitsel ignores his concession on
appeal: that the “division of labor” required him, not medical
staff, to observe Kee. Yet, he admits that he occasionally “ob-
served” Kee, in person and on the monitor. We decline to de-
cide at this stage that to “observe” carries no duty other than
to physically look at a detainee, no matter her condition. In
any event, his “back-door” effort to dispute the facts regard-
ing the division of labor deprives us of jurisdiction to consider
his appeal. Stewardson, 43 F.4th at 736.
B
Whitsel next argues that, assuming the medical-deference
rule applies, the record is devoid of evidence that he “knew
or had reason to know” that Kee was not being treated or was
being inadequately treated. He therefore concludes that “de-
ferring” to the judgment of the medical staff was proper.
On interlocutory appeal, though, we cannot decide
Whitsel’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence that he
knew or could have known that medical staff were not treat-
ing Kee. See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 313. It remains to be decided
whether the medical staff exercised professional judgment in
treating, or not treating, Kee for her severe dehydration and
other effects of opioid withdrawal. Further, Whitsel escapes
liability only if he “reasonably relied” on the judgment of
medical professionals. Miranda, 900 F.3d at 343. Per his con-
cession, Whitsel, not medical staff, had the primary responsi-
bility to observe Kee. By not informing staff of Kee’s develop-
ing symptoms—particularly the blow to the head, falls, con-
fusion, and visible cramping—Whitsel could not have reason-
ably relied on the medical judgment of nurses who lacked the
information he had from his observations.
No. 24-1694 9
Whitsel next offers a legal argument that knowledge of a
detainee’s symptoms is different from knowledge that “the
medical staff was failing to treat or inadequately treating an
inmate.” See McGee, 55 F.4th at 569 (cleaned up). But even in
the abstract, that argument does not resolve whether, as a
matter of law, Whitsel is entitled to qualified immunity. He is
correct that knowledge of symptoms and level of care are not
the same. But the cases he cites did not absolve the correc-
tional officer because, as Whitsel posits, “the officer [saw]
medical personnel assessing or treating an inmate during his
shift.” Instead, the officers in these cases prevailed because
they did not ignore the prisoner’s symptoms of distress. In
each case, officers relayed relevant information to medical
staff or at least responded to an emergency at the same time
as medical staff exercising their judgment. See McGee, 55 F.4th
at 573–74 (nurse told officers that prisoner was “faking”);
King, 680 F.3d at 1016–18 (officers “immediately” notified
nursing staff of prisoner’s symptoms); Estate of Perry v. Wen-
zel, 872 F.3d 439, 449–50, 458 (7th Cir. 2017) (officers followed
nurses’ instructions).
A jury could find that Whitsel had reason to know that
medical staff failed to treat Kee. He witnessed her escalating
symptoms. And he knew medical staff were not aware of her
situation because he never saw them administering care and
he did not inform them of her condition.
His argument is thus “dependent upon, and inseparable
from,” disputed facts about what Whitsel knew, who he told,
and the reasonable inferences a jury could draw from the
video about the severity of her symptoms. See Ferguson,
13 F.4th at 580. For these reasons, we DISMISS this appeal for
lack of appellate jurisdiction.