Nurse at Georgia ICE detention center is whistleblower re COVID-19 + GYN care and

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

The Intercept  8/14/2020

“A Silent Pandemic”: Nurse at ICE Facility Blows the Whistle on Coronavirus Dangers

Quote

...The whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, says that Irwin, which is run by the private corporation LaSalle Corrections, has underreported Covid-19 cases, knowingly placed staff and detainees at risk of contracting the virus, neglected medical complaints, and refused to test symptomatic detainees, among other dangerous practices. On September 8, Wooten submitted a letter detailing her complaints to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, with the help of attorneys from the Government Accountability Project. The grim situation inside the facility reflects what she called “a silent pandemic” running rampant behind the prison bars.

When the first suspected case of Covid-19 arrived at Irwin in March, Wooten says, she overheard the warden, David Paulk, tell a member of the nursing staff not to tell anybody that the man recently transferred might have the coronavirus. “He didn’t want there to be mass panic,” she said. (Reached by phone, Paulk said he had no comment.) Another member of the medical staff ordered Wooten to triage the man, even though she didn’t have a mask. She refused. “They’re still not taking this seriously,” Wooten said. “Enough was enough.”...

...Wooten’s account was bolstered by interviews with another current member of Irwin’s medical staff — who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation — and four people currently or recently detained there....

https://theintercept.com/2020/09/14/ice-detention-center-nurse-whistleblower/

NBC News 9/16/2020

Lawyers allege abuse of migrant women by gynecologist for Georgia ICE detention center

Quote

WASHINGTON — A nurse who worked at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Irwin County, Georgia and four lawyers representing clients there are claiming that immigrant women are routinely being sent to a gynecologist who has left them bruised and performed unnecessary procedures, including hysterectomies....

...Wooten was demoted in July from a full-time nurse to "as-needed" after missing work because she had coronavirus symptoms. She said she believes the demotion was in retaliation for raising coronavirus protocol concerns, according to the complaint.

She also said that there was not enough active testing of the immigrant detainees for the coronavirus and that the facility was not "reporting all these cases that are positive," meaning the number of cases at the facility was possibly much higher than that reported by ICE....

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/nurse-questions-medical-care-operations-detainees-immigration-jail-georgia-n1240110

Video:

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/nurse-speaks-out-about-inhumane-conditions-at-georgia-immigrant-jail-91823173551

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

Business as usual.  Sad but not shocking.  We seem to have an insatiable appetite for election spending but no interest in the cost of decency.