A woman who said she was left to give birth to her baby alone on the dirty, concrete floor of her jail cell in Maryland filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging that jail nurses ignored her screams and pleas for help for six hours. A fellow inmate, hearing Valentine’s pleas, called Valentine’s boyfriend, who called the jail pleading with staffers to help her, the lawsuit said. The nurses also ignored a concern raised by a jail deputy about Valentine but he did not contact any superiors, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit is similar to one filed in 2019 by a woman who gave birth alone in Denver’s jail the year before, claiming that nurses and deputies ignored her pleas for help for five hours. Previously, decisions about whether to move a pregnant inmate were left to jail nurses but deputies were authorized to call for an ambulance for someone in labor.

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