Ridiculed and later ignored, before being left for hours to bleed to death on a concrete floorR

"How much is a life worth?" Sue Garber said at a news conference called to announce a $4 million settlement with Denver Health Medical Center and the doctors and nurses on duty there the morning of Feb. 18, 2006, when Emily Rice died.

You tell me, Roy Rice and Susan Garber seemed to scream, howmuch money would it take for you to fill the nasty emotional hole leftby your child being ridiculed and later ignored, before being left forhours to bleed to death on a concrete floor?

"I would sell pencils on the streets if I could have my daughter back."

She had been in a traffic collision that morning and was arrested for driving while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license. Transported to Denver Health, she was treated and soon released back into custody.

What doctors and nurses failed to recognize was that Emily Rice hadsuffered a ruptured spleen and lacerated liver in the collision.

Transferred to city jail, the 24-year-old woman cried for some 15hours as she lay on the floor of a cell. She could not feel her feet,she would complain over and over to jail staff. "Sleep it off," wouldcome the reply.

Only when more than a dozen other inmates began screaming andpounding on the walls did jail staff finally rush to Emily Rice's aid.She was dead long before they got her back to Denver Health.

Still pending is a lawsuit filed by Emily Rice's parents against theCity and County of Denver. Contrary to assertions made by various cityofficials in recent days, the couple's lawyer, Darold W. Killmer, saidthere has been no offer by Denver to settle.