A Las Vegas attorney filed a second lawsuit Wednesday that accuses medical personnel at University Medical Center of failing to provide emergency treatment to a pregnant woman in labor.
Both lawsuits claim the women gave birth prematurely to baby girls who died.
"The complete indifference to life is unacceptable," according to a statement released Wednesday by attorney Jacob Hafter. "The fact that this event occurred in UMC a week after the death of Angel Dewberry is unfathomable."
Hafter filed the second lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Las Vegas resident Latricia Richard. A week earlier, he filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of another Las Vegas woman, Roshunda Abney, who gave birth to Angel Dewberry at home on Dec. 1.
The earlier lawsuit claims emergency room personnel at both UMC and Valley Hospital refused to provide Abney treatment.
Hafter said he received Richard's medical records from UMC on Wednesday and rushed to file the lawsuit on her behalf.
"We cannot as a community allow this type of care to continue at UMC," the attorney said.
According to the lawsuit, Richard was complaining of labor pains when she went to UMC's emergency department at about 10:20 p.m. on Dec. 8.
Richard, already a mother of three, was 22 weeks pregnant and had been receiving prenatal care. She was placed in a room in the labor and delivery department, and was placed on an external fetal monitor.
"She was never seen by a physician or any advanced nursing personnel," the lawsuit alleges. "Her cervix was never checked for dilation. She was given a sleeping pill and sent home."
Richard was discharged around 3:30 a.m. A few hours later, she went to her private doctor, who determined she was in active labor.
"He sent her via ambulance to UMC where she delivered her premature baby who died," according to the lawsuit.
The document claims UMC violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act by failing to screen and treat Richard. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Abney accuses both UMC and Valley Hospital of violating the federal law.
UMC officials have declined to comment on both complaints.
According to the Abney lawsuit, she arrived at UMC with her fiance, Raffinee Dewberry, on Nov. 30 and waited for six hours without being treated, despite her complaints about abdominal pain.
She then went to nearby Valley Hospital but said she left after hospital staff suggested she could face a similar wait there.
Within 20 minutes of arriving home on Dec. 1, Abney gave birth. She has told the Review-Journal she did not know she was pregnant.
On Dec. 10, UMC officials moved to fire six employees involved in the Abney case. The six, whose names were not released, were suspended pending termination proceedings.
Kenneth Webster, an attorney for Valley Hospital, said in an e-mail last week that Valley "categorically denies the allegations" pertaining to Valley and its staff made in Abney's lawsuit.
"At no time was Ms. Abney discouraged from seeking medical treatment at Valley Hospital, nor was she denied a medical examination," Webster wrote. "Ms. Abney and Mr. Dewberry abandoned any alleged request to be seen at Valley Hospital when they voluntarily chose to leave the facility after a matter of only a few minutes, without providing even their names or any description of a physical complaint."
According to the Abney lawsuit, a preliminary autopsy report by the Clark County coroner's office placed the baby's age at birth at 26 weeks, plus or minus three weeks. The baby weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces.
Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@review journal.com or 702-384-8710.
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