Video performed in court docket Tuesday detailed the ultimate day within the lifetime of a girl who died in custody on the Las Colinas jail in Santee, a dying prosecutors allege was the results of negligence on the a part of a nurse and physician who labored on the jail.
The footage of 24-year-old Elisa Serna‘s last hours was performed throughout a preliminary listening to in El Cajon Superior Courtroom, wherein a decide will decide whether or not Dr. Friederike Von Lintig, 58, and nurse Danalee Pascua, 38, will go to trial on involuntary manslaughter costs in Serna’s dying. Each defendants resist 4 years in jail if convicted.
Prosecutors say Von Lintig was the doctor on obligation on the day Serna died. Pascua witnessed Serna fall inside a medical statement unit cell on the date of her dying and prosecutors allege she left Serna mendacity on the ground of the cell for the following hour.
Serna died on Nov. 11, 2019, about 5 days after she was arrested for alleged theft and drug offenses. She was moved to the jail’s medical statement unit on the day earlier than she died.
Footage from inside her cell confirmed medical workers attending to her a number of occasions all through the day, together with one event when she had what San Diego County Sheriff‘s Detective Lisa Brannan described as a seizure throughout Tuesday’s testimony.
The detective testified that she reviewed all footage capturing Serna’s actions contained in the jail from the day she was booked till the date of her dying.
On the ultimate day of her life, Brannan mentioned Serna appeared noticeably unwell and fell greater than a dozen occasions, although deputies and medical workers didn’t seem to see most of these cases.
Serna’s last collapse was captured on footage and performed in court docket.
Within the video, Serna will be seen standing on the cell door speaking to somebody exterior. Brannan testified that by the investigation, she decided Pascua and a deputy have been exterior the door.
Serna falls to the facet and her head strikes a wall. She then falls to the bottom and Pascua and the deputy enter the room and verify on her.
Serna is seen along with her head propped up towards the wall whereas the remainder of her physique is susceptible alongside the ground.
After a while, Pascua and the deputy depart with out shifting Serna from that place. Serna remained there for the following hour as urine will be seen spreading alongside the bottom from beneath her physique.
About an hour later, deputies and nurses entered the cell and started performing CPR. Serna died a short while later.
The preliminary listening to is anticipated to proceed by the week.
Serna’s dying can be the topic of a federal wrongful dying lawsuit filed towards the county by her household, who alleged jail workers have been conscious Serna suffered from substance abuse and subsequent withdrawal signs, however didn’t present her with remedy. Although Serna was fainting, had low blood strain, was vomiting usually and displaying odd and incoherent habits, jail workers “ignored the apparent indicators of medical misery” and “failed to supply correct treatment as Elisa’s situation was worsening,” the criticism alleges.
Together with the county, Von Lintig, Pascua and several other others are named as defendants within the ongoing lawsuit.
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this text.
