43
staff who administered the treatment.348 The IACHR notes that the statements of the COF Doctor on February
14, 2003 and August 29, 2003 refer specifically to the situation at the COF and the treatment that Ms.
Chinchilla received.
147. In that respect, as regards treatment, the COF Doctor said in his statements of February 14,
2003 and August 29, 2003 that the correctional system did not provide her with the insulin that she needed
and that she obtained her own supply through her relatives. In his statement of February 14, 2003, the COF
doctor said that Ms. Chinchilla normally administered her own treatment, while in his statement of August 29,
2003, he said that "presumably" the nurses administered it. The Commission notes that according to the
statements of the duty nurses one of the inmates at the COF cleaned Ms. Chinchilla’s wounds and
administered her insulin.
148. With respect to the necessary equipment to provide the treatment, the Commission observes
that in his statement of August 29, 2003, the COF doctor replied, “No,” when asked if the COF had the
necessary equipment to treat her illness. The foregoing is corroborated by the three opinions of the COF
multidisciplinary team, according to which, “this facility lack[ed] the necessary resources for her care,” and by
the COF socioeconomic study of January 27, 2003, which reported that “the Female Orientation Center [did]
not have specialized staff to provide her with better care.”
149. The Commission also sees that the Correctional System Medical Services Coordinator
explained that Ms. Chinchilla needed subcutaneous insulin, “for which the prison lack[ed] the necessary
equipment to provide care.” It was mentioned that “[t]he Center [did] not have specialized hospital medical
equipment to deal with crises of that magnitude,” and that “[did] not have adequate orthopedic equipment,”
although “it [did] have adequate facilities for the internment of the inmate which [were] managed by the
prison’s hospital area.”
150. Specifically with regard to the medical care that she received, Ms. Chinchilla told the
enforcement judge in a communication dated February 27, 2003, that there was inadequate infrastructure
and that there was no way of keeping her insulin refrigerated. On August 29, 2003, she confirmed that she
had to provide her own food because she could not eat what the Center offered her. She said, “Sometimes I
have some and sometimes I do not; sometimes I can rely on my family and sometimes not.”
151. In light of the above, the Commission finds that the COF was not in a condition to provide
adequate treatment and that it did not supply Ms. Chinchilla with the insulin needed to treat her illness,
bearing in mind its particular characteristics. The Commission observes that in view of the absence of
adequate equipment at the COF, the Correctional System Medical Services Coordinator explained in one of his
communications that Ms. Chinchilla Sandoval’s condition had “forced [them] to refer her regularly to
hospitals because at given times she require[d] specialized care.” On this point, the Commission notes that,
indeed, in the record appear multiple authorizations by the judge approving most of her requests to leave the
prison for medical or laboratory appointments at the HSJD and Roosevelt Hospital, although in occasions he
did not approve them, sometimes due to factors attributable to omissions by the judge or to late submissions
of documents by the social worker.
348
In this connection, the Commission notes from the proven facts that at both the hearing of August 29, 2003 and
that of April 21, 2004, the Public Prosecution Service medical examiner was consistent in his statements as to the fact that he
was not familiar with the healthcare facilities and professional care at the COF or with the specific care that Ms. Chinchilla
might have received or was receiving. For his part, the doctor from San Juan de Dios Hospital reiterated in his statements of
February 14, 2003, August 29, 2003, and April 21, 2004, that he was ignorant as to the conditions that existed at the COF, who
administered insulin to Ms. Chinchilla, and whether or not she received that treatment daily. For his part, the judiciary medical
examiner said in his first statement on February 14, 2003 that the Center had the capacity to deliver the treatment, “provided
that it is [allowed] entry or it is provided to her” and “also as long as there are no complications of any kind.” He added that he
“[did] not know who provide[d] medication to Ms. Chinchilla.” In his subsequent statements on August 29, 2003 and April 21,
2004, he said that he did not know if she was given treatment, that he was not aware if the Center had the right medicine, and
that prisons did not have teams of specialists.