Diana Sanchez went to jail when she was eight months pregnant. She had no idea of the hell that she was about to face.
It makes for harrowing footage. Sanchez is locked away in a cell. She is screaming out in intense pain.
The correctional officers are fully aware of what’s happening. In fact, they’re watching her on the security camera, but they do nothing to help.
Instead, the officers have given Sanchez a pad intended for unhousebroken pets to piss on. That’s all the assistance she’s going to get as she goes through the most painful experience known to humanity.
“She told the guards and the nurses that she had been having constant contractions, that her water had broken and that she was passing blood.” – Mari Newman, Sanchez’s lawyer.
The officers are aware that Sanchez’s water has broken, hence the pad. They can hear and see her crying out for help. But still, she’s left all alone.
As the next six hours pass, the agony gets worse for Sanchez. But still, no help of any kind comes.
Eventually, she knows that she has to force her child into the world. She struggles to pull off her pants. She pushes, and her son comes into the world, crying for his mother.
Finally, a nurse comes into the cell. Without saying a word to Sanchez, he takes hold of the baby.
Half an hour later, Sanchez is at the hospital. At last, she has the medical attention that she needs. The doctors tell Sanchez that she’s lucky to not have bled to death.
This is the ordeal that Diana Sanchez and her child faced, in the USA in the year 2018. Obviously, the risk of Sanchez and/or her child dying was immense. But the people tasked with running the jail didn’t lift a finger to help her.
And what was Sanchez’s crime? What warranted this torture? She cashed a check that belonged to her sister and got arrested for identity theft.
Naturally, when Sanchez was finally free, she decided to file a lawsuit against The City and County of Denver, the Denver Health Medical Center and several of the nurses and correctional officers of the jail.
The City and County of Denver conducted its own investigation, which included looking at the harrowing security camera footage. It concluded that nothing inappropriate had taken place.
For the next two years, justice evaded Sanchez. She was having flashbacks to the terrible birth and struggling to put her life back on the right track because of it.
Finally, in August 2020, Sanchez received justice.
Denver Health Medical Center agreed to pay Sanchez and her son $320,000. The City and County of Denver agreed to pay them an additional $160,000.
But most importantly, Denver Health agreed to implement measures that ensure no one will ever suffer in the same way that Sanchez and her son did.
Now Sanchez will focus on raising her son, Jordan, in the best possible way. Hopefully, she will be able to manage the mental trauma of his birth while doing so.
It’s crazy to think that this story took place in America in the 21st century. Yes, Sanchez committed a crime in cashing her sister’s check. But should Sanchez have suffered hours of intense agony? Should her life and her child’s life have been put at risk? Should it have taken two years and a lawsuit to answer these questions?
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