BATESVILLE — A jury on Thursday found that a former state prison inmate’s rights were violated when she was shackled to a hospital bed while she was in labor, but it awarded her just $1 in damages.
The verdict came after a trial in U.S. District Court in Batesville over Shawanna Nelson Lumsey’s claims that the shackling exposed her to unnecessary pain and increased her risk of complications as she gave birth to her son while she was a prison inmate in 2003. She asked that Patricia Turensky, the guard who attached the shackles, be ordered to pay unspecified damages as compensation for inflicting physical pain and mental and emotional suffering.
Although the jury awarded just $1, the minimum allowed, Lumsey’s attorney claimed victory. He added that he will seek reimbursement for legal fees in the case, which has worked its way through the court system for more than six years.
“Shawanna wanted her day in court,” the attorney, Paul James of Little Rock, said. “She feels vindicated.”
Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the state Department of Correction, said the department was pleased with the damage award but disagreed that Turensky violated Lumsey’s rights. The department hasn’t decided whether to appeal, she said.
“There were two very different versions of the events that took place presented,” Tyler said. “I think there was testimony that backed up the officer’s version.”
At the time she gave birth, Lumsey, 36, of Mabelvale was serving a 10-year sentence for writing hot checks and for credit-card fraud. She was released in 2004 and remains on parole.
Lumsey testified during the two-day trial that she was suffering from excruciating labor pains as Turensky took her from the McPherson Unit to Newport Hospital on the afternoon of Sept. 20, 2003.
Lumsey was not given any pain medication - a decision made by medical personnel at the hospital that Turensky said she had nothing to do with.
Lumsey claimed that, when she arrived at the hospital, both her legs were shackled to a bed, and one hand was cuffed to a rail. She said she begged Turensky to remove the shackles, but the guard refused. The restraints, she said, prevented her from being able to move around to help with the pain and exposed her and her baby to complications such as hemorrhaging, dizziness and low blood pressure. She acknowledged that she didn’t suffer any such complications, however.
Turensky, who was represented by the state attorney general’s office, said only Lumsey’s left leg was shackled and that she removed the restraint, which had an 18-inch chain, whenever nurses wanted to examine Lumsey. She said Lumsey never complained about the chain. Turensky and Lumsey agreed that the shackles were removed before Lumsey was moved to the delivery room.
Testifying Thursday, Paul Hergenroeder, a doctor in private practice who delivers babies for McPherson Unit inmates at the hospital, said he only “vaguely” remembered Lumsey and didn’t recall whether she was shackled when he arrived. Asked by Assistant Attorney General Scott Richardson whether Lumsey said anything about being shackled, Hergenroeder smiled and said no.
“She was in labor. ... She had a lot of other things to say,” Hergenroeder said.
Tammy Hill, the obstetrics nurse who attended to Lumsey, testified Thursday that she also didn’t recall whether Lumsey was shackled, adding that she had never seen a pregnant inmate patient with multiple limbs restrained.
She described Lumsey as a “very compliant, good” patient and Turensky as “very professional.” She said she had worked with Turensky during other deliveries, and the guard always took detailed notes and was “very compassionate toward the inmate.”
“She knew her job,” said Hill, whose husband is a security chief at the Grimes and McPherson prison units. “She knew how to do it and she knew how to maintain her humanity doing it.”
Lumsey, who also has a 16-year-old daughter, didn’t dispute that she gave birth to a healthy, 9-pound, 7-ounce boy.In her initial court filings, she said the birth had deformed her hips, damaged her sciatic nerve and torn her stomach muscles, among other injuries. Later, however, she said she had learned from an orthopedist that the injuries were not related to the use of the restraints during childbirth.
At the time Lumsey gave birth, Correction Department policies said shackles should not be used “during the final stages of active labor, while occupying a delivery room, or if such application is determined by a physician to be a health risk to the unborn child or the health status of the inmate.”
Assistant Attorney General Christine Cryer argued that Turensky isn’t a medical professional and didn’t know when Lumsey had entered the final stages of labor.
James disputed that, pointing out that Turensky had jotted down notes from the medical staff about Lumsey’s progress in giving birth.
Turensky, 64, who retired in 2008 and lives in Pleasant Plains, south of Batesville, said she felt vindicated by the damage award but disagreed that she had violated Lumsey’s rights.
“I wish I could have gotten through to the jury that I did not know that she was in hard labor when I put that shackle on one foot,” Turensky said.
Lumsey’s lawsuit initially named the Correction Department, former department Director Larry Norris and other officials and Correctional Medical Services Inc. as defendants, but those defendants were dismissed before the trial. In a ruling in October 2009, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the department’s policy was constitutional but that a jury should be allowed to decide whether Turensky had violated it with “deliberate indifference” to Lumsey’s needs, in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment for inmates.
Lumsey’s complaints nevertheless prompted the department to change its policy. Now, pregnant women with good behavior records can qualify for “trusty” status,” allowing them to be taken outside the prison without restraints. While flexible nylon restraints can still be used in some cases, no pregnant inmate has been restrained during labor in at least two years. Tyler said the restraints could be necessary in some situations, such a woman who is serving a sentence for killing her child.
“We have to consider all the possibilities and make sure that no harm comes to anyone in the delivery room, including the child,” Tyler said.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/16/2010