Family: 'They let her die'
Amy Sartori's worst fear was not being able to breathe, her relatives said.
Hearing that she had struggled for hours in her Allegheny County Jail cell against a fatal lung infection is painful for her family. Sartori died three days before her scheduled release to a drug rehabilitation program, her family said.
"She was not a bad girl. She had problems, but she did not deserve this horrible death," said her aunt, Deborah Skruch of Mt. Washington. "One of the things that we all kept in our hearts was that while she was (in jail) she was safe" from the lure of drugs.
Sartori, 31, of Mt. Washington, and another inmate, Valeriya Whetsell, 50, of Homewood, died last month. Officials first said they had been victims of poisonous gas released by mixing common cleaners, but Allegheny County Coroner Cyril H. Wecht said last week that laboratory tests showed the women died from an antibiotic-resistant staph infection coupled with the flu.
The deaths stunned the women's families. The women died without some relatives even knowing they were ill.
"I'm mad. I'm mad because they let her die. I don't care how they say it. They let her die," said Percy Farrar, 58, of Homewood, who had been dating Whetsell off and on for 22 years.
Whetsell is survived by a son, Raylan, and three grandchildren and was like a mother to Farrar's son, Eric. Farrar said her family deserves an explanation from jail officials.
"I want them to come and tell those kids why their mother and grandmother isn't here, and why they didn't help her," Farrar said.
Based on separate accounts from the families, Sartori and Whetsell apparently developed symptoms the evening of March 19. Whetsell was the first to be taken to Mercy Hospital, Uptown. But Sartori, who was transferred there about 10 hours later, was the first to die, on March 20.
At Sartori's wake and in sympathy cards, jail inmates told her family that Sartori had been banging on her cell door the night before she died, telling guards she couldn't breathe, relatives said. She was not allowed to see a doctor, and she was told to "shut up," they said. Inmates told the family that guards had considered Sartori a whiner.
By the time a nurse came to her cell the next afternoon, Sartori had lost consciousness after spending hours coughing up blood, the inmates told relatives. Five hours later, Sartori was dead.
Warden Ramon C. Rustin said security records do not say whether Sartori had complained of breathing problems. At 2:11 p.m. March 20, a nurse visited Sartori's cell and immediately had her taken to the infirmary, Rustin said.
Rustin said he is not sure why the nurse was called to her cell.
Asked whether Sartori had been told to "shut up," Rustin said that did not appear in the security record.
Sartori spent about four hours in the infirmary, and then paramedics took her to Mercy Hospital. She died about 50 minutes later at 7:31 p.m.
Rustin said security records show that Whetsell started complaining to guards early March 20 about breathing problems. A nurse came to her cell and gave her an antibiotic and a decongestant, said Allegheny County Health Department Director Bruce Dixon.
Five hours later, Whetsell was taken to the jail infirmary. About 45 minutes later at 8:15 p.m., she was transferred to Mercy Hospital. She died the next day at 4:04 a.m.
Farrar, who drives a tractor-trailer, had just delivered a load in North Carolina and was not even aware that Whetsell had been sick when a friend told him she had died.
On Thursday, Farrar gave Whetsell's grandson, Adam Higgs, 13, her cross to add to the gold chain that hangs around his neck. The boy, whom she raised since he was an infant, appears to be coping with his grandmother's death, Farrar said. But there are signs to the contrary -- such as Higgs' refusal to look at photographs of Whetsell's funeral, Farrar said.
Whetsell had been in jail since her arrest on Thanksgiving to await trial on a burglary charge, court records show. She was accused of breaking into a Homewood house by smashing a window and stealing $18 in coins and a gold bracelet.
Whetsell had a rap sheet for theft and drug charges dating to 1989. Farrar said he initially was glad that she had been arrested last year because he hoped it would give her a chance to straighten up.
"She had hard times, but Valeriya was a kind, loving person," he said. "She had a heart as big as this city, and she loved kids. She loved the whole neighborhood."
Court records show that Sartori was awaiting trial after a Dec. 4 arrest on charges of drug possession and providing false identification to law enforcement. She had been in and out of jail since 1997 on charges including prostitution and parole violations.
Sartori, who wrote poetry and loved children, was three days away from leaving the jail for a rehabilitation program, her relatives said.
Sartori's grandmother, Mary Maloney, 77, said she feels sick every time she looks out at the Allegheny County Jail from her Mt. Washington home.
"She was a really pretty young girl," Maloney said. "She was really a beautiful girl, beautiful girl."
In addition to Maloney and Skruch, Sartori is survived by her parents, Edward and Dianne Ogden Sartori, of Mt. Washington; two sisters; and nephews, uncles, aunts and cousins.
Timeline
March 20
2:55 a.m.: Valeriya Whetsell, who had complained of breathing problems, is visited in her cell by a nurse who gives her an antibiotic and decongestant.
6:10 a.m.: The jail infirmary is notified that Whetsell's condition was worsening.
7:34 a.m.: Whetsell is taken to the infirmary.
8:15 a.m.: Paramedics take Whetsell to Mercy Hospital, Uptown.
2:11 p.m.: A nurse checks on Amy Sartori and has her moved to the jail infirmary.
6:40 p.m.: Paramedics take Sartori to Mercy.
7:31 p.m.: Sartori is pronounced dead.
March 21
4:04 a.m.: Whetsell is pronounced dead.
Sources: Allegheny County Coroner's Office; Allegheny County Jail; Allegheny County Health Department
