Eventually, Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo worsened to the point that she was running a fever and could not stop from crying or sit up straight during their in-person meetings because she was
The lawyer said she was so concerned after one of the meetings that she walked over to the facility’s inmate services coordinator and pleaded with the person to find another doctor for her client. Months later and after repeated follow-ups by Ms. Matherne, Ms. Hidalgo Gonzalez was eventually sent to another doctor who confirmed she had an infection in her uterus and prescribed her medication, after which she started to feel better. Ms. Hidalgo Gonzalez was eventually deported to her home country of Mexico.
“If they act like they had no idea there were issues with this doctor, they’re lying,” Ms. Matherne said.
The other lawyer, Ms. Huynh, said her client Pauline Binam underwent a procedure for an ovarian cyst in 2019 that involved general anesthesia. When Ms. Binam woke up, Ms. Huynh said, Dr. Amin told her that he had removed part of her fallopian tube and that she would be unable to conceive without in vitro fertilization.
Ms. Binam, who was 29 at the time of the procedure, told Ms. Huynh that she would never have consented had she known there was a risk of infertility.
Ms. Huynh said her client, who has since been transferred to an ICE detention facility in Texas, had not had a period at all since the procedure. Ms. Binam was nearly deported on Wednesday morning, but two Democratic members of Congress, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Pramila Jayapal of Washington, rushed to contact ICE, and Ms. Binam was removed from the plane before it took off.
“We need her to testify,” Ms. Jayapal said. “This story sends a chill through any woman.”
Also part of the whistle-blower complaint are allegations that the facility has not complied with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for containing the coronavirus. A total of 43 detainees there have tested positive for the virus, according to government data, and Ms. Wooten alleged in her complaint that officials at the facility knowingly placed healthy detainees near those who were sick and contagious.