This archive report was first published on 31 August 2019.
On July 31, 2018, Diana Sanchez, then 27, went into labor in her jail cell at the Denver County Jail. Despite her repeated calls for help, no guards or medical personnel entered her cell until she gave birth to her son.
Sanchez had been arrested on July 14, 2018, for charges of identity fraud and was awaiting trial. She was more than eight months pregnant at the time of her arrest, and Denver Health personnel were aware of her pregnancy and her opiate withdrawal symptoms, which made her labor particularly risky.
According to the complaint filed by Sanchez's lawyer, Mari Newman, the city and county of Denver, Denver Health Medical Center, and six sheriff's deputies and nurses 'utterly failed to satisfy their legal and moral duty' to provide Sanchez with proper medical care during her labor.
Sanchez told the deputies at least eight times that she was experiencing contractions and informed them when her water broke. The guards were also able to monitor her situation via live video feed from her cell and informed the jail nurse of Sanchez's situation.
Instead of calling an ambulance for Sanchez, the deputies and nurse on duty gave her an absorbent pad to sit on and requested a non-emergency van to take her to the hospital after they had finished booking in new inmates.
After almost six hours of labor, Sanchez gave birth to a boy. Only then did medical personnel enter her cell, and Sanchez and her son were taken to a hospital 30 minutes later.
US Senator Kamala Harris, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has weighed in on the issue, tweeting: 'The inhuman treatment of detained pregnant women cannot be ignored.'
