A newly revealed report on the situation in various immigration detention centers run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) confirms various abuses, such as the case of a pregnant woman who fell in the shower and had vaginal bleeding, but only they gave him Tylenol for the pain.
“A pregnant detainee did not receive proper medical attention after she slipped and fell in the shower, causing vaginal bleeding,” says the more than 1,600-page report revealed by NPR.
The woman’s case occurred in 2017, but there are not many details, not even if the woman was able to have the baby, indicates the report that had been kept secret.
In fact, the woman’s case was “hidden”, and even the patient denied that she had vaginal bleeding at three different times, which is an unusual situation, but there are no details in the medical report on how she was treated.
“In summary, the medical record does not reflect the bleeding complaint or the bleeding finding on examination. The complaint was not located,” the report says. “However, as a best practice, a pregnant woman with abdominal pain should have an ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterus), a life-threatening condition.”
This case was reported by experts hired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, who examined more than two dozen facilities in 16 states between 2017 and 2019, NPR reported.
“In this case, this pregnant woman with abdominal pain was administered Tylenol without determining the location of the pregnancy,” the report states. “It is reasonable to obtain a urinalysis, as was done in this case, however it remains the standard of care to confirm the location of the pregnancy with ultrasound.”
The person who wrote the report points out that there were deficiencies in the attention to the migrant.
Although this patient’s complaint of vaginal bleeding was not supported by documentation, medical care did not meet the standard of care for pregnancy pain.
The inspectors who wrote the report – obtained after an intense legal battle – experts found negligent medical care, it is indicated.
“[Hay] ‘unsafe and dirty’ conditions, racist abuse of detainees, inappropriate pepper spraying of mentally ill detainees, and other problems that, in some cases, contributed to the deaths of detainees.
ICE has not commented on the report or on this case that occurred at the El Paso Services Processing Center, in Texas.