"It wasn't about my daughter, her pain, what she went through," Kashena said of her daughter's experience.
A Texas mother is speaking up for her daughter and newborn grandson after a hospital allegedly would not care for her daughter, who was actively in labor, until she finished filling out hospital paperwork.
At 11:43 p.m. on Nov. 10, Kashena Manuel began driving her pregnant daughter, Kiara, to Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas, she told WFAA.
Kashena says that while Kiara was in the car, she began having contractions that were 2 minutes apart. Once she and Kiara arrived at the hospital, just before midnight, Kashena parked her vehicle in an ambulance spot near the emergency room entrance.
As the two women entered the hospital, Kashena says that hospital personnel told the soon-to-be grandmother that she needed to move her car to a different location. According to Kashena, the staff told her that they would have a wheelchair waiting to transport Kiara.
After returning to find no wheelchair, Kashena says that she informed a nurse, who brought one out, but allegedly declined to assist Kiara in getting out of the car.
According to Kashena, the two did receive help from a nearby security guard, not medical professionals.
Kashena claims that she reparked the car, and when she returned, she claims that saw her daughter was "isolated" and "in pain by herself" in the ER. "People behind the desk working as normal, as they didn't hear her," Kashena continued, according to WFAA.
By 12:15 a.m. on Nov. 11, Kashena alleges that she approached the ER registration window, and asked when her daughter would be seen. "'What are we doing? She's in active labor; she is about to have that baby.' And they said, 'We need the paperwork,'" Kashena said of the exchange, before noting her daughter was "screaming" in pain with the paperwork in her hand.
As Kashena pressed further, the nurse allegedly replied, " 'The quicker you sign, the quicker we can get her in the back.' "
By that point, Kashena told WFAA that she began filming the interaction. In the video she captured, Kashena can be seen saying "If she has a birth in the chair, that's what it is?" before a hospital staffer reiterates that the paperwork must be completed before she could be seen.
But Kashena replied, "So, you'll take a chance of her having infections and a baby in this chair? So, she's not a priority."
Kashena and Kiara signed the paperwork, as the expectant mother was "weakened" and "trembling."
In the clip captured by Kashena, medical staff continue to ask about Kiara’s medical history as she screams out in pain.
Kashena says that it was nearly 30 minutes after their arrival that Kiara was taken to Labor and Delivery. Immediately after the nurse removed Kiara’s shorts, the nurse “just froze” and was able to hold the newborn’s head. “He was not crowning. He was birthing, and she begged my daughter not to move,” Kashena told WFAA.
Six minutes later, at 12:35 a.m., Kiara’s son was born. But Kashena noted for WFAA that if Kiara “moved the wrong way,” her son “would not be here.” Now Kiara and her son are doing okay.
But Kashena filed a formal complaint against the hospital management.
"It wasn't about my daughter, her pain, what she went through," Kashena told WFAA. "And worst of all, my grandson, who had no voice, he wasn't even considered. I was in the emergency room, and it was paperwork over life."
Kashena claims that hospital management never replied to her concerns, prompting her to share the videos on social media.
Kashena told WFAA that she "had to film," as a means to show "what [her] daughter went through, what [her] grandson went through just to get here."
"This is not Black against white," Kashena said. "This is a system issue. That hospital. That's culture."
Texas State Representatives Rhetta Andrews Bowers and Representative Linda Garcia then saw the video. The politicians reportedly met with the CEO of Dallas Regional Medical Center and Mesquite mayor Daniel Alemán Jr. on Nov. 18 to discuss the incident.
The hospital has reportedly begun an internal investigation into the incident, WFAA reported.