Doctor, nurse on trial for inmate death
SAN DIEGO — Paloma Serna shared her feelings Friday as the trial begins for a former doctor and nurse facing involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the death of Serna’s daughter, 24-year old Elisa Serna, while she was in custody at the Las Colinas jail just over four years ago.
“Every day it’s a daily fight to just get the justice that she needs,” Paloma said.
The judge is not allowing cameras inside the courtroom during the trial.
Outside the courthouse, the defendants Dr. Friederike Von Lintig and nurse Danalee Pascua who are accused of negligence in Serna’s death on Nov. 11, 2019, five days after she was booked into the jail.
Prosecutors started by saying the doctor and nurse failed to treat Serna in the final hours of her life, leaving her to die on the floor in her cell in the jail’s “medical observation unit.”
According to prosecutors, Serna was a drug and alcohol addict who was going through withdrawals and had multiple seizures in her cell. Prosecutors say Serna was ignored and accused of faking the seizures as she was kept in isolation, and that Dr. Von Lintig refused to examine her patient.
And that later, during another seizure when Serna hit her head against the wall and fell to the floor, Nurse Pascua failed to get all her vitals and did not call for help as Serna was dying.
In court, the jury was shown video of Serna’s last hours of life.
Attorney Gene Iredale represents the Serna family in a civil suit against the county.
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“You have on video the actual death of a person who in their very physical motions is crying out for help and was denied even the most basic of medical care,” Iredale said.
“She’s a human being, she’s nobody’s trash to be treated like that,” Paloma said.
Attorneys for Dr. Von Lintig say Serna was under the care of other doctors and nurses for nearly five days before Von Lintig examined her.
They argue Von Lintig never saw Serna having seizures and never claimed she was faking them, and in addition, she was not given reports of those seizures.
Her attorneys say the doctor left for the day three hours before Serna collapsed in her cell.
Attorneys for Pascua argue she only saw Serna and was briefed about her situation around an hour before she collapsed, and that she did not actually see Serna collapse, arguing that Pascua did nothing that led to Serna’s death in the brief time she observed her.
This trial comes after a state audit nearly two years ago that accused the sheriff’s department of failing to “adequately prevent and respond” to in-custody deaths.
“The systematic failures that we have in our in-custody system needs to change or other people will continue to die,” Miller said.
Already, there have been two more in-custody deaths so far this year.
Meanwhile, this trial is expected to last a month, possibly a little longer.
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