The grieving family of a Colorado woman who tragically died while in custody has taken legal action, alleging that her death was preventable. They claim that medical staff at the facility neglected to address a deadly allergic reaction, leading to her untimely demise.

Ashley Raisbeck, aged 27, was serving a short jail term following a plea agreement in December 2023. She was in the process of drug withdrawal at the time. The lawsuit, meticulously examined by Law&Crime, asserts that while Raisbeck was held at the Jefferson County Detention Center in Golden, Colorado, medical personnel began treating her for withdrawal symptoms and noted the presence of sores on her body. As part of her treatment, she was prescribed antibiotics, despite having informed the staff of her penicillin allergy, which was clearly documented in her records.

Alarmingly, the lawsuit contends that despite these warnings, medical professionals administered a synthetic form of penicillin, directly contradicting her known allergy.

The legal complaint holds several Jefferson County officials, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and 11 medical staff members responsible for the events leading to Raisbeck’s death on December 16, 2023. Raisbeck had been detained three days earlier after pleading guilty to false reporting. Given her history of drug use, she was placed on a detoxification protocol by the jail’s medical staff.

The lawsuit further reveals Raisbeck’s history of minor offenses and her consistent reporting of allergies to penicillin, Vicodin, and codeine. Upon her initial intake at the jail, a nurse noted sores on her face, arms, and legs. As part of the detox and treatment plan, another nurse prescribed cephalexin, known commercially as Keflex—a synthetic penicillin derivative that should not be given to individuals with a penicillin allergy.

Raisbeck had previously refused to take Keflex due to her allergy during an earlier incarceration, opting instead for an alternative antibiotic, a fact documented in her medical records.

The lawsuit stated that according to medical records from her December 2023 visit, Raisbeck was given Keflex seven times while she was in custody. She began having increasingly severe gastrointestinal reactions and dropping blood pressure, a symptom that does not normally occur during withdrawal and is considered a “red flag” that requires further medical treatment. According to the lawsuit, the nurse who noticed this symptom “failed to notify anyone.”

Similarly, Raisbeck experienced a pulse rate higher than 120, another red flag that was allegedly ignored. As her symptoms worsened, nurses still did not seek further medical attention. By the time Raisbeck had her sixth dose of Keflex, she started experiencing muscle cramps and spasms, both symptoms of shock. A nurse told her to “drink water” despite her inability to keep anything down.

On the morning of Dec. 16, 2023, a nurse and a sheriff’s deputy went to Raisbeck’s cell and found her “lethargic and unresponsive.” The nurse could not find a pulse, and her blood pressure was at a level “known to be incompatible with life.” Both the nurse and deputy left Raisbeck in her cell alone for another hour while she was in the “final stages of anaphylactic shock.” The nurse returned and gave Raisbeck a seventh dose of Keflex.

The lawsuit said that this was when the nurse and deputy loaded Raisbeck into a wheelchair, where she lost consciousness. The deputy noted that Raisbeck’s “head had to be held up,” her feet dragged along the floor, and she had a “blank, glazed stare.” The same nurse then gave Raisbeck two doses of Narcan “despite no clinical indication or symptoms of opioid overdose.”

When Raisbeck arrived at the jail medical unit, medical staff administered three more doses of Narcan, still treating her as if she was “overdosing.” When another member of the staff called 911, the lawsuit said she told dispatchers it was “probably a fentanyl overdose,” adding with a chuckle, “We get a lot of those here.”

Paramedics arrived at the jail at 11:34 a.m. Raisbeck was pronounced dead at the hospital at 12:07 p.m. An autopsy cited severe dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, shock, black vomit, and “no evidence of a fentanyl overdose.” The cause of death was complications of intussusception.

Anita Springsteen, a civil rights attorney who is representing Raisbeck’s family, told local ABC affiliate KMGH that the case had been investigated by the First Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT). It stated there was “no evidence that law enforcement engaged in any criminal conduct that caused the death of Ms. Raisbeck.”

Springsteen called the CIRT investigation “inadequate,” telling KMGH, “I don’t know if the investigators had medical backgrounds, but they certainly missed the fact that Ashley was administered a medication that she was allergic to.”