Medical staff told woman to 'drink water' while she was having fatal allergic reaction to antibiotic they gave her 7 times: Lawsuit

The household of a Colorado pistillate who died portion successful jailhouse has filed a wrongful death suit claiming that aesculapian unit astatine the jail wherever she was held ignored a fatal allergic reaction.

Ashley Raisbeck, 27, was serving a brief jailhouse sentence aft taking a plea statement successful December 2023 portion she was coming disconnected of drugs. According to the lawsuit, which was reviewed by Law&Crime, aesculapian unit astatine the Jefferson County Detention Center successful Golden, Colorado, began treating Raisbeck for withdrawal and noticed sores connected assorted parts of her body. Part of the attraction program included antibiotics, but Raisbeck told aesculapian unit that she was allergic to penicillin, which was noted successful their records.

Despite that, the suit claimed, aesculapian unit administered a synthetic signifier of the nonstop cause she said she was allergic to.

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The suit names respective Jefferson County officials, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, and 11 aesculapian staffers arsenic defendants liable for Raisbeck's decease connected Dec. 16, 2023. Raisbeck was arrested 3 days anterior and booked into the Jefferson County Jail aft pleading blameworthy to mendacious reporting. Because Raisbeck was an progressive cause addict, aesculapian unit enactment her connected a detox protocol.

According to the lawsuit, Raisbeck had been successful and retired of jailhouse for insignificant offenses, and she had indicated her allergy to penicillin, Vicodin, and codeine successful the past. When she was archetypal booked into jailhouse and seen by a caregiver during her aesculapian intake, the caregiver saw sores connected her face, arms, and legs. In summation to the detox protocol, different caregiver prescribed cephalexin, marque sanction Keflex, a synthetic mentation of penicillin that is contraindicated successful patients with a penicillin allergy.

Raisbeck had refused to instrumentality Keflex during a erstwhile stint successful jailhouse owed to her allergy, which was noted successful her aesculapian records. She took a antithetic antibiotic instead.

The suit stated that according to aesculapian records from her December 2023 visit, Raisbeck was fixed Keflex 7 times portion she was successful custody. She began having progressively terrible gastrointestinal reactions and dropping humor pressure, a grounds that does not usually hap during withdrawal and is considered a "red flag" that requires further aesculapian treatment. According to the lawsuit, the caregiver who noticed this grounds "failed to notify anyone."

Similarly, Raisbeck experienced a pulse complaint higher than 120, different reddish emblem that was allegedly ignored. As her symptoms worsened, nurses inactive did not question further aesculapian attention. By the clip Raisbeck had her sixth dose of Keflex, she started experiencing musculus cramps and spasms, some symptoms of shock. A caregiver told her to "drink water" contempt her inability to support thing down.

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On the greeting of Dec. 16, 2023, a caregiver and a sheriff's lawman went to Raisbeck's compartment and recovered her "lethargic and unresponsive." The caregiver could not find a pulse, and her humor unit was astatine a level "known to beryllium incompatible with life." Both the caregiver and lawman near Raisbeck successful her compartment unsocial for different hr portion she was successful the "final stages of anaphylactic shock." The caregiver returned and gave Raisbeck a seventh dose of Keflex.

The suit said that this was erstwhile the caregiver and lawman loaded Raisbeck into a wheelchair, wherever she mislaid consciousness. The lawman noted that Raisbeck's "head had to beryllium held up," her feet dragged on the floor, and she had a "blank, glazed stare." The aforesaid caregiver past gave Raisbeck 2 doses of Narcan "despite nary objective denotation oregon symptoms of opioid overdose."

When Raisbeck arrived astatine the jailhouse aesculapian unit, aesculapian unit administered 3 much doses of Narcan, inactive treating her arsenic if she was "overdosing." When different subordinate of the unit called 911, the suit said she told dispatchers it was "probably a fentanyl overdose," adding with a chuckle, "We get a batch of those here."

Paramedics arrived astatine the jailhouse astatine 11:34 a.m. Raisbeck was pronounced dormant astatine the infirmary astatine 12:07 p.m. An autopsy cited terrible dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, shock, achromatic vomit, and "no grounds of a fentanyl overdose." The origin of decease was complications of intussusception.

Anita Springsteen, a civilian rights lawyer who is representing Raisbeck's family, told section ABC affiliate KMGH that the lawsuit had been investigated by the First Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT). It stated determination was "no grounds that instrumentality enforcement engaged successful immoderate transgression behaviour that caused the decease of Ms. Raisbeck."

Springsteen called the CIRT probe "inadequate," telling KMGH, "I don't cognize if the investigators had aesculapian backgrounds, but they surely missed the information that Ashley was administered a medicine that she was allergic to."