Surveillance video shows Diana Sanchez writhing in pain on the cot in her jail cell, periodically screaming for help. Finally, after five hours, she rips off her pants and gives birth to a baby boy — all by herself. And now she’s suing.

A federal lawsuit filed by Sanchez says the Denver County Sheriff’s Department “cruelly chose convenience over compassion” by ignoring Sanchez’s pleas for help, even after her water broke and she began bleeding. The suit notes that the jail’s staff members were well aware that Sanchez was in labor — just before she gave birth, someone slid an absorbent pad under the door to prevent blood from getting on the cot; and moments after her baby was born, a nurse entered her cell and whisked the newborn away, without cleaning him off, clearing his nasal passages or even wrapping him in a blanket.

A rep for Denver Health, a city-run hospital that provides nurses for the jail, would only say, “Denver Health provides high quality medical care to thousands of inmates every year.” Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department says policy has been changed; guards are now required to send women who are in labor to the hospital.

Source: http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-former-inmate-allegedly-forced-to-give-birth-alone-in-jail-cell-20190829