PITTSBURGH (AP) _ Being physically restrained contributed to the seizure-related death of an Allegheny County Jail inmate in January, the county medical examiner ruled.
The death of inmate Frank Smart, 39, is one of at least seven in the past 18 months that prompted the county to not renew the contract with Corizon Health Inc. to provide medical care for inmates. The contract expires Aug. 31. Allegheny Health Network, a Pittsburgh-based hospital chain owned by health insurer Highmark Inc., will take over Sept. 1.
Smart’s mother, Tomi Lynn Harris, has said jail nurses didn’t give him the necessary medicine to control his seizures.
But Tennessee-based Corizon said Smart was only at the jail for 14 hours, and that his medicines were ordered within 10 minutes of his arrival at a medical intake center and administered properly.
“During an emergency event later that evening, our records show that our staff administered additional treatment to Mr. Smart and that he responded to the medical care provided,” Corizon said in the same statement.
Guards have filed reports saying Smart was handcuffed and shackled so he could be treated after he began convulsing in his cell. The restraints were removed when Smart went into cardiac arrest, the guards’ reports said.
The medical examiner has listed Smart’s seizure disorder as the immediate cause of his death, but said being physically restrained was a “significant condition” related to his death. The medical examiner is still investigating and hasn’t ruled on a manner of death, meaning whether Smart’s death occurred due to natural causes, was accidental or was “homicide” _ which is not to say it was a crime, but that it was caused by the actions of others.
It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the medical examiner might make that determination.
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