Horrifying prison CCTV shows inmate being left alone to give birth
WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: A woman who gave birth alone in her jail cell is suing after prison officials and nurses allegedly ignored her pleas for help during about five hours of labour.
Horrifying surveillance video, released by her lawyer, shows Diana Sanchez lying down on a narrow prison cell bed in Denver, US.
The woman is seen crying out in pain, before she pulls off her pants and delivers a baby boy alone.
Her lawyer said Ms Sanchez was left to give birth alone on July 31, 2018, with only an absorbent pad slid under her door about 45 minutes before she gave birth.
The video shows a male nurse then picking the infant up after eventually walking into the cell after the baby is born.
“To characterise it as medical care is a joke,” said Ms Sanchez’s lawyer, Mari Newman.
The lawyer noted that the open toilet several feet away from where she gave birth was blacked out by the city in the video.
The federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday says that jail officials “cruelly chose convenience over compassion” by not calling for an ambulance after Ms Sanchez’s water broke and she was bleeding.
It says a van was requested to take Ms Sanchez, who was in a medical cell at the jail, to the hospital. But jail workers knew the ride likely wouldn’t be available for hours until the morning booking process was finished, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that no nurse dried or warmed the baby or cleared mucous from his mouth for several minutes and that jail nurses did not have equipment to cut the baby’s umbilical cord. It was not severed until firefighters arrived about 15 minutes after the baby was born.
Policy changed to support pregnant inmates
The Denver County Sheriff’s Department said on Thursday (local time) that it has since changed its policy to ensure that pregnant inmates who are in any stage of labor are immediately taken to the hospital. Previously, decisions about whether to move a pregnant inmate were left to jail nurses but deputies are now authorised to call for an ambulance for someone in labor, department spokeswoman Daria Serna said.
The jail’s nurses are hired from Denver Health, the city’s public hospital, and the sheriff’s department said that Ms Sanchez was in a medical unit under the care of nurses at the time she delivered.
Denver Health declined to comment on a pending lawsuit but defended its work in the jail.
“Denver Health provides high quality medical care to thousands of inmates every year,” spokesman Simon Crittle said.
Ms Sanchez was not available for comment. Last year, she told Denver KDVR-TV, which first reported on the delivery, that the jail sees inmates as “garbage.”
“I know I was there because I was at fault for that I did wrong — and I didn’t deserve that and especially not my baby,” she said.
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