WASHINGTON: AColorado woman is suing the city of Denver for causing her "unnecessaryterror, pain and humiliation" after she was left alone in her jail cellwhile giving birth. Video footage of the harrowing ordeal shows Diana Sanchez,now 27, going into labor the morning of July 31, 2018. Despite repeated callsfor help, no guards or medical personnel entered her cell until she gave birthto her son.
"What shouldhave been one of the happiest days of her life was instead a day of unnecessaryterror, pain and humiliation that continues to cause her ongoing emotionaltrauma," Sanchez's lawyer Mari Newman said in a complaint filed Wednesday.The suit claims the city and county of Denver, Denver Health Medical Center andsix sheriff's deputies and nurses "utterly failed to satisfy their legaland moral duty."
US Senator KamalHarris, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, hasweighed in on the issue, tweeting: "The inhuman treatment of detainedpregnant women cannot be ignored." Sanchez had been arrested for chargesof identity fraud on July 14, 2018, and was awaiting trial. According to thecomplaint, she was more than eight months pregnant when she was arrested. DenverHealth personnel were aware that Sanchez was pregnant, and that she was goingthrough opiate withdrawal, making her imminent labor particularly risky, thecomplaint said.
'Totallydisorganized'
The day she gavebirth, Sanchez told the deputies "at least eight times" that she wasexperiencing contractions. She also told them when her water broke. The guardswere also able to monitor her situation via live video feed from her cell andinformed the jail nurse of Sanchez's situation, the complaint said. Instead ofcalling an ambulance for Sanchez, the deputies and nurse on duty gave her anabsorbent pad to sit on and requested a non-emergency van to take her to thehospital after they had finished booking in new inmates.
After almost sixhours of labor, Sanchez gave birth to a boy. Only then did medical personnelenter her cell, and Sanchez and her son were taken to a hospital 30 minuteslater. "The Denver Health nursing staff proved totally disorganized andunprepared to care" for either the infant or his mother, Newman wrote inthe complaint, noting that the staff either had not prepared or could not findthe necessary post-birth equipment.
An internalinvestigation was conducted after the incident, which determined that "theDeputy Sheriffs took the appropriate actions under the circumstances andfollowed the relevant policies and procedures," according to a sheriff'sdepartment statement released last November. "As a result, (DenverSheriff's Department) policy was clarified to mandate that when an inmate is inlabor an emergency ambulance will be called," the statement said. - AFP