According to legal filings, Rogers went into a barn one day to care for some piglets. After he entered the barn, part of its roof collapsed and struck him in the head, knocking him unconscious. Another prisoner found Rogers, woke him, and brought him to Jeffrey Jarrett, a prison agricultural specialist. Rogers asked to go to the prison infirmary but Jarrett rebuffed him because he thought Rogers appeared to be uninjured.
When Rogers tried to continue his workload that day, he reportedly began to drift in and out of consciousness and was clearly unwell. Other prisoners summoned prison officials, who dismissed their concerns and directed Rogers to lie down in his bunk. While en route to his dormitory, Rogers collapsed and his condition grew worse.
“By the time Rogers arrived at the dormitory, ‘he was wheezing, he had mucus draining, his face was bruising, and his eye and head were swelling,’” his lawyers told the court in their petition for review, quoting from lower court findings. “He eventually collapsed, began to ‘seize violently, began vomiting, and lost consciousness.’ Three and a half hours after Rogers first asked to be taken to the infirmary, prison officials finally radioed for medical assistance. Rogers had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.”