CALIFORNIA – A 55-year-old Filipina nurse died 3 days after an inmate at the Contra Costa County Prison attacked her.
Prison nurse Cynthia Barraca Palomata was struck in the head with a table lamp by 34-year-old inmate Aaron Nygaard. The inmate was in prison on burglary charges.
Nygaard has been charged with the murder of Palomata.
The native of Nabas, Aklan had worked as a nurse for 20 years. Palomata started providing care to inmates in 2005.
According to Zenei Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association (CNA), many nurses and even other healthcare workers deployed in correctional facilities are really at risk of being victims of violence.
“Statistics have shown that over 2 million cases set forth by the labor department say that 49% of those occur in the healthcare setting. So our nurses are really at risk and so are our other healthcare workers,” said Cortez.
Cortez said the CNA has called for better protection of nurses and healthcare workers.
“We have called on the county for several years now to better protect our nurses and also the other healthcare workers and in fact in 2008, we have suggested that they report every incident to the state. But apparently, all of our requests and our demands have been left unanswered,” she said.
She added that Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi from the 18th District has pledged to author a bill to “strengthen the language regarding protection for our healthcare workers and our nurses”.
Cortez cited a law in 1993 which only applies to acute care hospitals. She said Hayashi’s bill will include correctional facilities. Balitang America
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