An Altoona woman who said she miscarried twins while in the Blair County Prison has filed a federal civil rights petition seeking a million dollars in damages.

Amanda Marie Horner, 42, was arrested in Scranton earlier this year on drug-related charges that, according to state court records, occurred in January.

City police issued a warrant for Horner’s arrest and she was taken into custody by Scranton Police in March.

Horner was then returned to Blair County and has been in the county prison since April 3.

“I came to Blair County Prison from Lackawanna County. … Upon my arrival, I told medical staff that I was pregnant and I’m high risk due to my past pregnancies and complications,” she stated in her petition that was filed in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown last Thursday.

She stated she was told that she would receive an emergency appointment to make sure nothing happens to her baby.

But on April 14, she reported not feeling well and the next day began experiencing problems.

She was initially sent to Conemaugh Nason Hospital in Roaring Spring.

After returning to the Blair County Prison, her bleeding and cramping became more intense and she stated she was then transported to UPMC Altoona.

Again after returning to the prison, her pain continued.

Horner reported that on April 16 she spent the day in a court hearing, and she told her lawyer, the corrections officers and sheriffs deputies about her intensifying pain, but was told there was nothing they could do.

She was instructed “to sit down and wait.”

That night she again was taken to UPMC Altoona and at that point the doctor informed her she was having a miscarriage.

After being returned to the prison, she experienced a miscarriage, after which, she noted, “I was (returned) to my cell as (if) nothing had happened.”

She was moved to another cell at that point and was told to sleep on the floor of her new cell, due to overcrowding.

While taking a shower the next day she experienced a second miscarriage, which she put in a hazard bag.

She was shattered by her experiences, explaining, “Before all this happened, I was very happy, social; I always came out of my room. After this happened, I don’t ever leave my room.”

Horner said she now experiences depression, post traumatic stress, anxiety and postpartum depression.

Her lawsuit addresses what she is seeking.

She is asking for $1 million in damages, but she added, “I’m seeking the proper hygiene to be issued to any female in need.”

Referring to the fact that after her trauma she was made to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded cell, she said she is seeking “the proper square footage be given per inmate,” and concluded by stating recreation should be given to all inmates — noting that she has been housed in the prison’s Restricted Housing Unit where inmates remain in their cells.

The Horner petition has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Brown in Pittsburgh.

In her lawsuit, Horner complained that she filed multiple grievances about the lack of medical care she was receiving at the prison, and she brings up complaints aired by other inmates who recently filed lawsuits in the federal court, including rodent droppings in the meals and contaminated water.

Her grievances went unanswered, she stated in her complaint.

Acting as her own lawyer, Horner also included 10 affidavits from other inmates who attested in writing as to the facts of her story.

One of those affidavits was written by a cellmate who asked a female corrections officer if she would write a statement supporting the lawsuit.

The officer, who witnessed one of the miscarriages, stated she could not do that or she would lose her job.

But the officer related to the cellmate what she saw “will be forever etched in my brain, something I will never be able to forget. I still have nightmares about it. I have never experienced something so traumatic in my life.”

The affidavit said the officer ended her description by stating she saw the image of a fetus, a backbone and an eye.

The officer said, “All she could do was cry with her (Horner),” the affidavit concluded.

The named defendants in the lawsuit include: Prime Care Medical, the prison’s medical provider from Harrisburg; and five corrections officers that include three deputy wardens, a lieutenant and a sergeant.

Horner’s attorney in her criminal case could not be reached.