TAZEWELL, Tenn. — A Tazewell, Tenn., woman has been charged with aggravated child abuse and neglect after police say she left the hospital against medical advice and her newborn baby died.
Jessica Diamond Miracle, 21, went to the emergency room at Claiborne County Hospital on Monday evening with her boyfriend, according to a police report. The doctor on duty advised Miracle that she needed to go to the University of Tennessee Hospital, and told her that if she signed herself out of the Claiborne County Hospital Emergency Room that both she and her unborn baby would die.
According to the arrest warrant, Miracle told the doctor she just wanted to go home and signed herself out. The warrant says she then exited the hospital and walked into the parking lot.
The report states that while in the hospital parking lot, Miracle began to deliver her unborn child. She was returned to the Claiborne County Hospital and her newborn son passed away a short time later.
Miracle was transported to UT Medical Center, where she was placed under arrest by officers from the Tazewell Police Department. The judge set her bond at $50,000. She is due in court Sept. 27.
Tazewell Police Sgt. Shawn Goode is the investigating officer according to the arrest warrant.
The photo above shows a woman who is obviously hurting, both physically and spiritually, as any mother would be who has just gone through natural childbirth and seen her newborn die. Then, we read that an unfeeling (again obviously) police force from 50 or so miles away can't wait until this young mother recovers enough to return home; instead, they go to the Knoxville hospital and drag her to Tazewell, where adequate hospital care is questionable, and put her in a jail cell.
Unless there is more to this story that will explain why an emergency room doctor would tell a woman in last-minute labor to travel another 50 or 60 miles to another hospital, I think the next story we read about this will be news that an attorney has brought suit against the Tazewell hospital for endangerment and against the Tazewell police for wrongful arrest, if not stupidity.
I wonder whether the Tazewell police allowed the doctor in Knoxville to give the young woman any pain medication to take with her to jail.
I sincerely hope that the MDN or Claiborne Progress will print further details about this to explain the bizarre story.