The allegation comes at a time when Prison Health Services, which contracts with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to provide medical care for more than 4,000 inmates in the county's jails, is under investigation in the death of a newborn last month.

A report on that death could be completed by Friday, authorities said.

The second claim of poor jail medical practices involves Angela M. Cintron, 21, who was arrested Oct. 19 on drug and prostitution charges. She said this week that her pregnancy was grossly mishandled by Prison Health Services nurses and doctors at the jail in December.

A blood test on Nov. 3 confirmed she was pregnant, medical records show. Cintron said she did not receive prenatal counseling, vitamins or medication for more than a month while she remained in the Falkenburg Road Jail.

Even though there appeared to be problems with the pregnancy, including intermittent spotting and sharp abdominal pain, an ultrasound was never performed, records show. A month and a half later, as Cintron neared the end of her first trimester, the problems intensified.

Cintron said she passed out the night of Dec. 16. Medical records noted her pale color and that she had a low blood count, possibly due to internal bleeding. She asked to go to the hospital, but nurses at the Falkenburg Road Jail told her to wait until the doctor showed up, she said.

``I kept begging them to please send me to the hospital,'' Cintron, of Plant City, told WFLA, News Channel 8. Instead she was given Tylenol for the pain and laxatives for constipation.

``I knew something was wrong with me,'' she said.

``I thought I was going to die.''

About 7 a.m. Dec. 17, Cintron was seen by a jail doctor. He gave her a dose of Milk of Magnesia and Maalox, according to medical records. Maalox is an antacid, and Milk of Magnesia commonly is used to treat constipation and indigestion.

She was dehydrated, and the doctor ordered her to begin an intravenous injection. Despite her pleas to go to the hospital, Cintron was sent to the women's infirmary at the Morgan Street Jail.

There, Cintron said, her pain intensified and she grew weaker. She needed help from fellow inmates to go to the bathroom, she said.

At 5 p.m., her records show, she again complained of acute pain. Nurses' notes say her lips had no color and her skin was cool. Her blood pressure was dangerously low, and she appeared to be going into shock.

At 5:20 p.m. an ambulance was summoned. An hour later she left for Tampa General Hospital, records show.

At Tampa General, Cintron went into surgery immediately. Her troubled, tubal pregnancy was terminated, and a portion of her ruptured fallopian tube was removed, records show.

The surgery means Cintron, a mother of three, might never have children again, she said.

She blames the jail's medical services for her ordeal.

``I'm angry at the lack of attention to us'' in the jail, said Cintron, who has been transferred to the Polk County jail to await a court hearing on a probation violation. ``They think we're basically nobody.

``I do have some issues,'' she said. ``I am a crack addict; I am a prostitute, but I do have three kids, and I take care of my kids. Everybody has problems.''

Stephen Igel, a gynecologist in Pinellas County, looked over Cintron's medical records and said that if she were his patient, things would have been handled differently.

An ultrasound should have been done in the beginning, Igel said. That would have told doctors what the problem was, and they could have dealt with it right away. Cintron also should have been getting prenatal vitamins and medication a month before they were given to her, he said.

And she probably should have gone to the hospital when she fainted, some 19 hours before she made the trip, he said.

``There is an accepted standard of care in the community,'' Igel said, ``and it appears that it wasn't done here.''

Sheriff's Col. David Parrish, commander of the jail, said Cintron's case is not under review.

``There is nothing to investigate there,'' he said. ``The medical records speak for themselves.''

Larry Pomeroy, senior vice president of Prison Health Services, said all that could have been done was done for Cintron, calling the care she received ``timely and appropriate.''

He said the medical records show Cintron was seen by a number of health care professionals while at the jail and that the procedure resulted in her treatment and referral to the hospital where successful surgery was performed.

The company's policy for dealing with pregnant inmates states they are to receive regular prenatal visits, vitamins, special diets and routine urine testing.

Prison Health Services is the subject of a sheriff's investigation after the death of a baby born March 5 in the Falkenburg Road Jail.

The Brentwood, Tenn.- based company was awarded a $12 million contract in 2002 to provide medical care for Hillsborough County inmates.

Go to TBO.com to read jail documents about this case and view WFLA, News Channel 8, video reports.