Warmington: A family's nervous wait inside jail and out
“She is due to deliver a baby girl in December,” said Paul Matthew, who describes himself as Okello’s husband.
The problem is she is one month into an eight-month sentence in Milton’s Vanier Centre for Women for what he says was a conviction for public nuisance and obstructing police while “impersonating a nurse” at a Hamilton nursing home.
It means she is carrying his child while incarcerated.
But the 27-year-old insists he wants no favours other than for people inside the institution to keep his wife and his soon-to-be-daughter safe.
“She told me she had two falls (Wednesday),” he said. “I am very worried.”
Part of this worry comes from a phone call from Okello inside the jail saying she is not eating properly. The other part is coming from information from a woman named Alissa Golob, Youth Director at Campaign Life Coalition, who visited Okello Wednesday.
“She does not look healthy,” she said. “Her eyes are bloodshot and her lips are chapped.”
But she says the inmate told her medical people “have repeatedly tried to convince Eva to have an early induction but Eva continues to refuse.”
Okello told Golob “she was put in segregation for her safety” but “Eva says it is extremely cold in the room, she is all alone, and she is only given bread to eat and water to drink, whereas when she is put in the regular facility she is given a special pregnancy diet, which includes a meal and fruit.”
On the chance that anything is happening that could affect the future of a child about to be born, I took this to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and asked for a prison ombudsman to take a proper look.
“It would be a breach of privacy for me to speak about the health status of any inmate in our custody,” explained spokesman Greg Flood.
But he did send the ministry’s policy which states “a pregnant inmate is provided with appropriate health care counselling specific to her health needs during pregnancy. Regular examinations and treatment align with the recommendations from OMA. Dietary requirements are assessed and where required.”
He also wrote “pregnant inmates are referred to an obstetrician in the community during the latter part of their pregnancy in preparation for delivery. Referrals are made earlier if the pregnancy is identified as high risk. Decisions related to labour and delivery for inmates in our custody are made by the inmate, in collaboration with medical staff and, where feasible, the inmate’s community physician who will deliver the baby” in a regular hospital.”
There certainly does not appear to be any protocol for medical personnel to suggest early induction. It wouldn’t matter either way, says Golob.
“She said her baby will come out when she’s ready. . . .she can feel her kicking and tapping and she can’t wait to meet her. There’s very little chance of her surviving with the induction and she doesn’t want to take that risk. Once she has her baby, the newborn will live with her father until Eva is released from prison.”
The guidelines Flood sent over say upon delivery of the child, upon being medically ready she “would return to the institution” and “appropriate arrangements would be made to have an alternate caregiver for the child during this period of time.”
Matthew said his goal is to get them home and turn the page.
“I feel like this problem has to be solved and I don’t want anyone to force my wife to deliver her baby early.” he said. “I’m totally against it and I’m worried for the health of my wife and child.”
With privacy rules it’s difficult to get at all the facts. In the interest of this unborn child, I did my best for today and will follow and update. I learned from the egregious Dr. Charles Smith false expert testimony debacle there is nothing wrong with double-checking the justice system.
Having said that, when someone has been convicted of being duplicities, it’s difficult to determine what’s fact and what’s fiction. Matthew told me “she was a nurse with a degree from her home country of Kenya” and that he didn’t realize she more than once was using someone else’s credentials to work as a nurse here.
Last month The College of Nurses of Ontario issued a statement saying it had “participated in the successful prosecution of an Ontario woman charged with identity theft and working as a nurse without proper qualifications” and that as “a repeat offender she compromised the public’s safety by posing as a nurse when she did not have the qualifications to provide nursing care.”
It’s serious crime and she should serve her time as a criminal as long as we remember her baby isn’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment