Lawsuit alleges lack of care caused Allegheny County Jail inmate's 2023 death

An understaffed medical team at Allegheny County Jail was “deliberately indifferent” in 2023 to an inmate’s opioid withdrawal, which ended in the Beaver County man’s death, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Zachary J. Sahm, 27, of Glasgow, died in the Downtown lockup on Sept. 13, 2023 — four days after he was taken to the jail on a bench warrant from outside Allegheny County, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office and then-Warden Orlando Harper said at the time.

Sahm told jail officials about his daily fentanyl and meth use when being processed at the jail, the lawsuit said. He last had used drugs less than six hours before officers took him into custody.

Sahm tested positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine and amphetamines, the warden said. He was placed in detox protocols.

Days later, around 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2023, a corrections officer found Sahm “in medical distress,” jail officials and the lawsuit said. He died at a local hospital about 90 minutes later.

“Defendants were acutely aware that Zachary was deteriorating prior to (the corrections officer’s) discovery, but were deliberately indifferent to his emergent medical needs,” the lawsuit said.

“This is one of the worst jail-death cases I’ve ever seen — and I’ve seen a lot of them,” attorney Dylan Hastings, who represents Sahm’s family, told TribLive on Friday. “When you mix an opioid use disorder and the Allegheny County Jail together, it’s pretty much a death sentence.”

The lawsuit filed this week in federal court said a jail nurse last evaluated Sahm a day before the corrections officer doing routine wellness rounds found Sahm “lying in his bunk wet and shaking but responsive.”

The lawsuit — filed by Shelley R. Ponist, who administers Sahm’s estate — alleges jail officials violated Sahm’s civil rights with a lack of care while he was recovering from substance abuse.

The suit names about 30 defendants, including the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and Allegheny County Jail, numerous medical staff at the jail and nearly three dozen unnamed people.

A day before Sahm’s death, a jail nurse “did not take Zachary’s blood pressure or document his fluid intake, as he was required to do according to the nursing standard of care and the (jail’s) own policies and procedures,” according to the lawsuit.

“At all relevant times, (the jail) was severely understaffed in both custody and medical personnel,” the lawsuit claims.

On Sept. 13, a jail nurse called 911 after the corrections officer found Sahm, the lawsuit said. They called the inmate’s condition “critical” and noted Sahm was vomiting, weak and pale, cool to the touch and had dilated eyes.

The 911 dispatcher classified the nurse’s call, however, “as nonemergent,” the lawsuit said. Paramedics didn’t arrive at the jail on Second Avenue for nearly a half-hour.

The lawsuit said Sahm, on the day of his death, was suffering “from acute heart failure” due to his opioid withdrawal and the side effects of treatment medication.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Sahm a day after his death. The cause and manner of Sahm’s death remained unclear Friday.

An Allegheny County spokeswoman did not return phone calls or an email seeking comment. A jail spokesman declined Friday to comment.

County officials, in an annual report on deaths at the county jail, identified several “matters of concern” in Sahm’s death.

“Custody officers failed to immediately initiate emergency care,” the report read. “There is evidence that (Sahm) was seen weekly … however, the severity of his condition and the documentation noting his deterioration are concerning.”

“It was clear (Sahm) needed a higher level of care than the jail could provide,” the report read.

Sahm was the third of four Allegheny County Jail inmates to die in custody in 2023, county records show.

About 20 inmates have died at the jail since 2020.

In 2021, the Pennsylvania Prison Society called Allegheny County Jail’s inmate death rate “alarming.” The Pittsburgh jail’s rate was 2.5 times higher than it was prepandemic and more than double the national average from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the group said.