Inmate says her baby died after prison staff stopped at Starbucks on way to hospital

A woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit after her baby died straight after it was born, saying jail staff wasted time getting her to the hospital when her water broke.

Per CNN, Sandra Quinones of California was incarcerated at the Orange County Jail in March 2016. She was six months pregnant at the time.

Quinones's water broke in March that year unexpectedly and according to her legal filing, she spent hours calling for help inside her cell before anyone came.

She repeatedly pressed a call button in her cell in order to seek medical attention, but staff at the jail only arrived after two hours, she said in the complaint which was filed in 2020.

Quinones also accused jail staff members of stopping at Starbucks on the way to the hospital.

All the while, she was reportedly forced to wait in the back of a van while she was bleeding and in labor,

Jail staff "decided to transport Quinones to the hospital on a non-emergency basis" instead of calling an ambulance, the complaint says, per CNN.

Orange County Women's Central Jail. Credit: Steve Cukrov / Alamy

When Quinones finally got to the hospital and gave birth, the infant passed away shortly after.

As a result, the grieving mom developed "severe and extreme post-traumatic stress disorder and depression." She was released from the jail in April 2016.

The suit accuses jail staff of inappropriate conduct and states that their actions directly contributed to the tragic fate of Quinones' baby. It also accused the county of failing to adequately train its staff.

On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a $480,000 settlement for Quinones following a unanimous vote in a closed-door session.

None of the board members made any comment on it during the public section of the meeting.

Attorneys representing Orange County had tried to get the case dismissed, arguing that Quinones did not have enough evidence to support her claim and that the suit was more than two years past the statute of limitations.

Now, Quinones must formally accept the settlement for it to become final, the Orange County Register reported.

“That’s a very good result for someone badly treated in the jail,” her lawyer, Dick Herman, told the Register. “This poor woman, she’s in jail having a miscarriage and, instead of calling an ambulance, they take her to the hospital in a patrol car and the cops stop at Starbucks while she’s bleeding.”

Featured image credit: Mykhailo Polenok / Alamy