USA: Inmate who delivered baby in prison cell sues state for denying medical care

Days before her baby was born in a prison cell, Tianna Laboy walked the halls in pain, pleaded for a doctor and cried out in the middle of the night, but help never arrived, her attorneys charged in a lawsuit filed Sunday in federal court.

Finally, early one morning last February, she gave birth in the toilet of her locked cell at York Correctional Institution in Niantic.

“She felt like she had to go to the bathroom, and she recalled that her mother told her if she feels that, be careful because it could be the baby coming,” her attorneys, DeVaughn Ward and Kenneth Krayeske, wrote. “Upon sitting down, she realized that her baby was crowning.”

The infant hit her head as she fell into the toilet bowl. Laboy pulled the baby out and, at the urging of her cellmate, “patted her on the back to get all the fluid out,” the lawsuit says. The baby then began to breathe.

A year later, with a Department of Correction investigation still underway, Laboy is suing a bevy of officials – including former DOC Commissioner Scott Semple, the medical director, OB/GYN and warden at York, two UConn Health staff members, and two prison guards – alleging denial and delay in medical care.

The lawsuit includes multiple counts of deliberate indifference, negligence and false imprisonment. The third charge refers to the baby’s birth behind bars.

Karen Martucci, a spokeswoman for DOC, said the department does not comment on pending litigation. Semple retired at the end of last year. A UConn Health spokeswoman also declined to comment Sunday.

The correction department announced in February 2018 – less than two weeks before Laboy gave birth – that it would move responsibility for the state’s inmate medical care from UConn Health to the DOC. State auditors had faulted the correction department’s $100-million-a-year, no-bid contract with UConn Health and its inmate care unit, saying that quality controls were substandard and the unit was policing itself. DOC assumed control in July.

After Laboy’s baby was born, two UConn Health employees were walked off the site and told not to return while the incident was under review.

“It really just leaves me speechless that someone could treat another human being, let alone a 19-year-old woman who is going through her first pregnancy and writhing in pain, like that,” Ward said. “How anybody could watch that and not try to help, it leaves me baffled.”

In the lawsuit, the attorneys paint a grim picture of the health care system inside York Correctional, the state’s only women’s prison. The OB/GYN was available only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, “despite serving a population of patients that could go into labor or have another life-threatening emergency … at any time,” they wrote.

Laboy was not offered a tour of a hospital maternity ward and health workers never discussed a birthing plan with her, a break from standard protocol, the lawyers said. Prison staff and the Department of Children and Families did not arrange custody of the child with Laboy before the birth.

On Feb. 9, four days before the baby was born, Laboy reported seeing clear discharge and feeling “mild” abdominal discomfort. Her belly had dropped and she experienced “excruciating” back pain, the lawsuit says.

She initially was told she couldn’t see medical staff because she hadn’t filled out the proper form, her attorneys said. After completing the paperwork, Laboy learned that the OB/GYN was not available, “nor was there a substitute.”

Two days later, the discharge became thicker and contained blood. The lawyers said Laboy went to see health workers, but was told she should return if and when her contractions were less than two minutes apart. By Feb. 12, the eve of the birth, Laboy reported feeling as though her stomach was “twisting inside out.” She called for medical attention, but the nurse on duty gave her a cup of water and a heating pad, advising that Laboy was not in labor, her attorneys said.

“For the remainder of the night … Laboy laid awake crying in pain,” the lawsuit says.* “The officers in the area checked on her every 15 minutes but told her there was nothing they could do as medical ‘didn’t want to see her again.’”*

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