In 2008, plaintiff Frank Lucero, 39, a prisoner at the California Institution for Men in Chino, was without his pressure-relieving medication to treat the glaucoma in his left eye. He was also blind in that eye. Lucero claimed that even though the institution knew he was without his glaucoma medication, it failed to send him to see an ophthalmologist, despite his growing pain. Subsequently, on May 23, 2008, the increased pressure caused his left eye to rupture. Lucero, after surgery, consequently lost his left eye and now wears a prosthetic eye in the empty socket. Lucero initially sued the primary physician that treated him, Hoan Nguyen; the chief medical officer, Muhammad Farooq; the warden at the California Institution for Men, Mike Poulos; the medical appeals analyst, C. Collier; and their employers, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the state of California. He alleged that the defendants’ deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs constituted medical malpractice and was a violation of his civil rights. Lucero later dropped his medical malpractice claims and only continued on his civil rights violations. Defense counsel contended that the case, at worst, represented medical negligence, and did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference., Lucero’s cornea burst as a result of not being able to take his pressure-relieving glaucoma medication. As a result, he was taken to an outside hospital, where he was treated and returned to the prison. Two weeks later, surgeons removed Lucero’s left eye, as well as the connective tissue he would have needed for a transplant. Lucero now wears a prosthetic eye in the empty socket. Lucero ultimately finished his prison term, which was for a parole violation, and now lives in Arizona. Defense counsel seriously disputed Lucero’s alleged damages. The defense’s expert ophthalmologist, a correctional department doctor, initially opined that Lucero’s eye would inevitably rupture, but disputed the damages alleged, claiming that the eye was useless anyway because Lucero was already blind in that eye. However, the defense’s ophthalmologist was ultimately excluded before trial and defense counsel received a sanction for his efforts to stop the plaintiff’s expert, also an internal correctional department doctor, from testifying.