Pregnant inmate died after hours of agony in Syracuse jail

[realnursealso/LPN]

This is unbelieveable. I thought I'd share this article with you. I'm not an OB nurse, but even I would have sought medical intervention.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/pregnant_inmate_died_after_hou.html

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

This story is just sad on so many levels.

I would love to hear from some corrections and/or psych nurses. I would think their assessment skills must be of the absolute highest caliber due to the behavior exhibited by some incarcerated people. How in the world do they distinguish between a real medical emergency and manipulative behavior?!

My pondering is not an excuse for the lack of treatment in this story, btw. It just made me think...

[tewdles, RN]

Bad, bad, bad nursing judgement...

[futrldnrse]

It is true that it must be hard for them to tell the difference between someone trying to manipulate them and what's real. Everyone involved in this situation is responsible and in my opinion the nurse is especially responsible because in any setting she is the advocate for the patient and she could have been the link that got this young lady help. The guards are also responsible but I'm pretty sure they didn't go through the training the nurse did in order to effectively assess someone who needs medical attention. In any event, they knew this woman was pregnant upon admitting her to jail so any complaint especially of abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, etc should have been emergent. That was just sick that this RN visited her cell three times within a few hours as the young lady rolled around on the floor begging for help nonetheless she vomited which relieved her pain temporarily. Any prudent nurse would have acted accordingly at any hint of distress before it had gotten to this point. I'm glad the physician in the article pointed out that most nurses would have called the md to examine her being pregnant and having these symptoms. This is something that could have taken a 5-10 min ultrasound and pelvic exam. Whether it was on the side of manipulative behavior or not, it was a simple trip to the ER which could have saved her life but because of this nurse and these guards she's gone and in this state that's called negligent homicide especially if the person brought it to their attention and she was under their care. Amazing how she tried to cover it up with late entries which would be because she knew she was in the wrong. All I have to say is absolutely disgusting and her mother is going to win this suit and she should take them and the county for every cent she can and then make sure she reports this to the NYS BON to investigate this nurse's license because I can't imagine looking at a pregnant woman laying on the floor trying to get air, in pain, vomiting and just walk away.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Should the standard of care be any different for an inmate than anyone else? I don't think so. Having had an ectopic pregnancy that threatened my life myself, I shudder to think if I had been treated with such indifference; where would I be today? That poor, poor family.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I have to clarify my previous post because I would hate for my clumsy explanation to be misinterpreted.

With regard to this story, the woman should have been fully assessed and provided care. Period. End of.

My pondering was related to the unique behavioral issues that I suspect some of the inmate population have, and the required assessment skills that nurses in this field should probably have. After all, many of these corrections patients have come from horrible backgrounds that require a focus on survival and that cause divergent developmental pathways which many of us do not have to deal with. In effect, my mind wandered beyond this story to possible instances of manipulative behavior and how a nurse is required to distinguish the differences in this line of work.

[tewdles, RN]

I have to clarify my previous post because I would hate for my clumsy explanation to be misinterpreted.

With regard to this story, the woman should have been fully assessed and provided care. Period. End of.

My pondering was related to the unique behavioral issues that I suspect some of the inmate population have, and the required assessment skills that nurses in this field should probably have. After all, many of these corrections patients have come from horrible backgrounds that require a focus on survival and that cause divergent developmental pathways which many of us do not have to deal with. In effect, my mind wandered beyond this story to possible instances of manipulative behavior and how a nurse is required to distinguish the differences in this line of work.

I think you ask a fair question here...

IMHO it boils down to basic nursing knowledge of potential problems with a known pregnant patient (nursing school stuff) AND good nursing judgment (discernment).

Because she is a nurse we should be able to presume that she has basic obstetric nursing knowledge, that's part of the reason we have an entry test. This nurse either has very bad judgment and a patient suffered and then died because of it...or she had absolutely no empathy or compassion and deliberately chose to withhold care causing the death of the woman...this would be a convict-able crime.