A video that showed a woman giving birth alone in her cell in jail at the Denver County Jail has sparked widespread revulsion.
Surveillance footage that Diana Sanchez's lawyer intends to use as evidence in court shows her crying out in agony as she struggled to give birth to a baby boy.
Sanchez says that she made repeated appeals for help but her passionate appeals were roundly ignored.
"I felt helpless. Nobody was helping me. There were so many people there and nobody lifted a finger basically," she told Cable News Network (CNN). "That pain was just -- it's indescribable, and what hurts me more, though, is the fact that nobody cared, " She added.
In her lawsuit, Sanchez alleges that the nurses contracted by the Denver County Jail, where she awaited trial on identity fraud charges, were unprepared for her situation.
The jail, in a statement to CNN, said that it had taken deliberate steps to ensure that what happened to Diana did not recur.
"To make sure nothing like this happens again, the Denver Sheriff Department has changed its policies to ensure that pregnant inmates who are in any stage of labour are now transported immediately to the hospital, " the statement read in part.
At the time of giving birth, Sanchez was taking methadone to help her deal with opiate withdrawal.