Woman left alone as she gave birth in jail cell says 'pain was indescribable'

https://news.yahoo.com/woman-left-alone-she-gave-075633016.html

Clark Mindock
,The Independent•August 30, 2019

A Colorado woman is suing after she was forced to give birth to her child, alone in a jail cell, while screaming and pleading for help from staff that paid her virtually no mind.

In the hours leading up to the birth of her child on July 31, 2018, surveillance footage shows 26-year-old Diana Sanchez repeatedly attempt to alert jail staff that she was in labour, her water had broken, and that she was in desperate need of medical attention.

But, instead of providing help to Ms Sanchez as she writhed in pain and screamed, staff at the Denver County Jail, alongside nurses from the Denver Health Centre, largely ignored her pain and pleas. As she begged for help, staff can only be seen providing a sanitary pad, slipped under her door less than an hour before she gave birth.

“That pain was indescribable,” Ms Sanchez said in an interview with local media outlet KDVR last year. She continued, "and what hurts me more though is the fact that nobody cared.”

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A spokesperson for the sheriff department told KDVR on Wednesday that the investigation showed deputies “took the appropriate actions under the circumstances and followed the relevant policies and procedures.”

But, she added that, “Policy has since been clarified that when an inmate is in labour, an emergency ambulance will be called.”

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During an interview with KDVR last year, she said that hospital staff, when she was finally taken to one, said that she was close to death.

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