Woman in a Coma After Being Jailed With Bullet in Her Brain : Violence: Anaheim police say she was arrested after her boyfriend was found dead, but she refused medical treatment. She was hospitalized when condition worsened.

Nancy Gilmore, her head swollen dramatically, sat accused of murder in an Anaheim jail cell for 36 hours. Then, after she was admitted to a hospital, doctors discovered a bullet lodged in her brain.

“The doctor said to me: ‘Your daughter came in here and her head was as big as a watermelon,’ ” said Gilmore’s mother, Betty Scott, who flew in from Baltimore as her daughter underwent surgery Monday. “He said the bullet had done so much damage to some parts of her brain that a part had to be taken out. They took part of my child’s brain out.”

Now, as the 30-year-old woman lies in a coma, her mother is calling for police to provide some answers.

Gilmore was arrested Friday night after a violent row with a boyfriend at an Anaheim motel. Police found the boyfriend dead from a gunshot blast to the chest, and Gilmore was booked on suspicion of murder.

Anaheim Police Chief Randall Gaston said Thursday his officers acted properly at the scene and took Gilmore “straight to the hospital” after noticing her head was bleeding.

But he said Gilmore refused treatment that night at Western Medical Center in Anaheim.

“In the hospital, she would not allow the doctors to do more than examine her,” Gaston said. “She refused any sutures as well. It appeared she had a laceration. She was medically cleared and returned to the jail.”

Gaston said jail staff members monitored Gilmore and became concerned as her conditioned worsened; they returned her to a hospital Sunday afternoon.

Gilmore’s mother said there is no excuse for the delay. “From Friday until Monday my child was in that stinking system with a bullet in her head,” Scott said.

Scott said her daughter, who is afraid of needles and hospitals, may have been too delirious to understand the seriousness of the injuries. The mother contends that police and hospital staff should have suspected sooner that something was seriously wrong.

Officials at Western Medical Center in Anaheim said Thursday that they could not immediately confirm that Gilmore was seen at the hospital the night of the shooting.

Officials at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana--where she underwent surgery Monday and remains in intensive care--referred all inquiries to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which referred calls to Anaheim police.

Anaheim Police Lt. Ted Labahn said Thursday that the department is no longer holding Gilmore on suspicion of murder. However, Gilmore remained under guard by the Sheriff’s Department, and faces two outstanding traffic warrants, he said. Anaheim detectives said they still are trying to determine exactly what happened last Friday inside the motel room that Gilmore had shared with Richard Lewis, 30.

Neighbors said they heard a woman scream for help and then heard gunshots.

When Gilmore emerged from the room, one side of her face was bloody, according to a couple living next door. The motel’s security guard also saw Gilmore attempting to leave with blood running down her face and stopped to question her, said a motel manager.

Gilmore told the guard she had been involved in a domestic dispute and had been hit by a bottle, the manager said. Officers arrested her on suspicion of murder at 11 p.m.

A close friend who saw Gilmore earlier in the day said she apparently had been planning to leave Lewis and had rented a car.

“I know how things were before this happened, and I know that she was trying to leave him when this happened,” said Ronald Mathews of Fullerton.

Detectives said they found a gun, believed to have been used in the shooting, in Gilmore’s car.

Officers called paramedics to the motel. But the police chief said Thursday that Gilmore refused to let the paramedics examine her at the scene, so officers took Gilmore to the hospital. Gaston said that the suspect told hospital staff the same thing she had told officers: that she cut her head on a door while ducking a bottle Lewis threw at her.

Gilmore declined a thorough exam, Gaston said, and she was booked into the city jail. Over the weekend, the jail staff “monitored her closely and noted that she did not seem to be becoming more coherent or improving,” he said.

At 2:11 p.m. Sunday, Anaheim authorities took her to the hospital. She was admitted to the Santa Ana medical center eight hours later, according to a hospital clerk.

“Did we take every step to ensure her medical welfare? Yes. I believe we did everything we’re required to do,” Labahn said. “Whether a person avails themselves of what we offer is up to them.”

Scott said she called the Anaheim jail from her Baltimore home on Saturday and spoke to an officer.

“She said to me, ‘We feel there is something seriously wrong, because of the size of her head,’ ” Scott said. “But she told me, ‘There is nothing we can do for her because she refuses medical treatment.’ ”

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this story.