A woman was forced to give birth alone on the floor of a prison cell while screaming in pain for help, a federal lawsuit alleges.
In July 2021, Jazmin Valentine gave birth in a cell at the Washington County Jail in Hagerstown Maryland.
“Mrs. Valentine experienced one of the most profound and painful moments in a person’s life alone, on a filthy cell floor with no sanitation, no medical care and no assistance of any kind,” the lawsuit reads. “She didn’t even have a blanket for comfort.”
The lawsuit names PrimeCare Health, a contractor that uses the prison to provide health services to inmates. It also names four individual nurses who were in prison during Valentine’s labor and delivery.
Valentine was arrested on July 2, 2021 and booked in the Washington County Jail for a probation violation. She was more than 8 months pregnant at the time, which the lawsuit said was “visually clear” to prison security and staff.
She gave birth on July 3. She was placed in a cell next to the nursing station, but staff nurses did nothing when she said she was starting to feel contractions.
According to the lawsuit, the two PrimeCare nurses who were stationed in prison did not take a first exam on Valentine. When Valentine’s deputy heard Valentine’s cries for help, the nurses told her she was experiencing withdrawal symptoms and would not have the baby any time soon.
Instead, a nurse at the station filed paperwork to move Valentine from the medical ward to the general women’s housing.
According to the lawsuit, the nurses “have done nothing at all to aid or assist Ms. Valentine with the impending birth of baby JRB. Instead, PrimeCare Medical’s nurses sat in their offices and went about their paperwork.”
Valentine spent nearly 6 hours screaming alone in her cell, the lawsuit alleges. Another inmate near her was able to call a friend, who in turn called Valentine’s boyfriend and her child’s father.
The father called the prison and tried desperately to get her medical help, but was ignored. Valentine claims in the lawsuit that she heard the nurses laugh at her boyfriend’s phone call.
In a desperate attempt to get the nurses’ attention, Valentine shoved what she thought to be her amniotic sac under the cell door into the hallway. The nurses and prison staff continued to ignore her.
Shortly after midnight on July 4, Valentine gave birth to a daughter.
The nurses didn’t notice that Valentine had given birth. The sheriff’s deputy discovered the mother holding her child when he shined a flashlight into the cell 15 minutes after the baby was born.
The lawsuit also alleges that they failed to provide basic care for the baby or mother, including removing mucus from the baby’s nose and mouth, providing a cap to warm the head, administering antiseptic eye drops, giving vitamin injections or administering hepatitis vaccine.
An EMT also had to cut the baby’s umbilical cord while they were on their way to the hospital, nearly 40 minutes after birth.
As a result of an unsanitary birth, the child developed MRSA, a dangerous staph infection.
Washington County declined to comment on the upcoming lawsuit and PrimeCare Health has not released a statement about the incident.
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