A complaint filed this week claims that a Kentucky woman in isolated pretrial detention was made to give birth on a toilet in a Tennessee jail.
Alyssia Moulton, 34, and a number of other known and nameless defendants are suing Southern Health Partners, the medical provider for the Montgomery County detention facility, in federal court.
The lawsuit, which spans 65 pages and includes documents, charges the personnel with intentionally disregarding the mother’s medical needs and suffering. The medical practitioner and personnel are accused of medical negligence and violations of due process in the filing. The infant is named as a plaintiff in the action, which claims that all of the defendants violated his right to due process.
The paperwork simply identifies Moulton’s son as “A.M.” The claims detailed in the document come together to form a terrifying story that sounds a lot like a medical horror.
“Ms. Moulton was alone in her jail cell when she delivered the baby,” according to the lawsuit. “She delivered the baby into the toilet. As a result of delivery into the toilet, A.M. suffered various injuries, including a blood infection of Gram-Positive Cocci and an eye infection of Citrobacter freundii.”
According to the filing, Moulton was arrested on a burglary charge on August 19, 2023. It wasn’t until she was tested that same day in jail by staff at Southern Health Partners that she found out she was pregnant.
A non-doctors healthcare worker performed one medical examination associated with the pregnancy test, as per the lawsuit. However, the lawsuit claims that medical care did not continue in this manner and that Moulton was never scheduled “at any point” for a medical examination.
“The failure to schedule Ms. Moulton for a routine pre-natal medical evaluation by a licensed physician was especially egregious,” the lawsuit alleges, because “Ms. Moulton 1) was unaware she was pregnant, 2) had been using opioids while pregnant 3) was unsure of her last menstrual period, 4) even her last menstrual period as reported would make her at least 24 weeks pregnant, and 5) during her entire pregnancy, she had never been evaluated by a medical doctor.”
The mother’s pregnancy was allegedly discovered by jail authorities, but they never performed an ultrasound on her, according to the lawsuit.
The expectant mother was then allegedly abandoned to fend for herself.
“Ms. Moulton was housed in medical isolation, where she spent 23 hours per day in her cell, with 1 hour per day out of her cell,” according to the lawsuit. “This housing condition constituted solitary confinement. Ms. Moulton was housed in solitary confinement for the duration of her incarceration at the Montgomery County jail, from 8/19/23 to 8/27/23 (until delivery of her baby and transport to the hospital).”
Moulton continues by stating that on the morning of her son’s delivery, she complained about contractions to the medical staff several times. One of the defendants noted in a log entry about a visit by “nursing staff” that there was “no palpable contraction observed,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, all of the nurses “consciously disregarded the foreseeable risk that Ms. Moulton would imminently deliver her baby” rather than “taking Ms. Moulton’s complaints of contractions seriously.”
“As a result of Defendants’ conscious disregard of this risk, Ms. Moulton gave birth alone in a jail cell, delivering her baby into the toilet,” the lawsuit stated. “The jail cell in which Ms. Moulton was forced to deliver her baby alone is not a medically adequate facility.”
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According to the document, Moulton was put back in isolation just two days after giving birth. According to the lawsuit, the mother and kid reunited one week later on September 5, 2023.
Additionally, Moulton says she received almost no help during her drug detox.
In the Middle District of Tennessee, the plaintiff is suing on four counts. She is requesting compensation for future monetary and non-monetary losses, psychological and physical suffering, embarrassment, discomfort, fear, anxiety, loss of life’s enjoyment, loss of liberty, privacy, and a sense of personal security and dignity, among other non-monetary losses. Attorney’s fees and punitive damages are also sought in the complaint.
