Family of man who died of asthma attack in Illinois prison sues state for wrongful death

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The family of a man who died while in prison at Stateville Correctional Center this summer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections, accusing prison staff of disregarding the asthma attack that killed him.

Michael Broadway, who was 51, died on June 19 after suffering an asthma attack amid excessive heat inside the prison.

His family claimed his death was entirely preventable if prison guards and medical staff had made sure he received immediate care after he started struggling to breathe inside his cell.

"Instead of helping him, Defendants watched Michael slowly perish while gasping for breath," the family's lawsuit states.

Broadway earned his college degree while incarcerated last November as part of the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP), which helps incarcerated people in Illinois complete college-level courses and earn college degrees.

Broadway had served 18 years of a 75-year sentence for first-degree murder when he died. But loved ones said he had turned his life around inside—getting that degree and putting other inmates on the right path. Broadway had studied sociology, according to his partner, Shawn Hardy. He'd also written and published a book, "One Foot In," a coming-of-age novel about two friends in Chicago.

But seven months after getting his bachelor's degree from Northwestern, Broadway died of an asthma attack amid sweltering conditions at Stateville.

"Defendants in our lawsuit knew that Michael was in severe respiratory distress. They knew, as we all do, that that can be fatal. But they did not call 911, and they did not call a Code 3, which would have initiated an emergency medical response in the prison," said attorney Terah Tollner.

The lawsuit filed by his wife, Chunece Jones-Broadway, claims Stateville's warden knew the prison was dangerously hot, had no air conditioning, and that windows were nailed shut and fans in front of cells were padlocked, leaving them without proper ventilation; but took no action to protect prisoners from excessive heat and humidity, or to protect inmates, like Broadway, who suffer from asthma or other medical conditions made worse by the heat.

"Indeed, when Michael asked to be placed on a lower gallery to accommodate his asthma, employees of Defendant Illinois Department of Corrections denied his request," the lawsuit claims.

Instead, the lawsuit claims Broadway was assigned to a cell on the top floor of the prison, where temperatures were hottest, despite the prison having empty cells on lower floors.

On the day Broadway died, the heat index in the area outside Stateville was nearly 100°, and inside the prison, temperatures inside prison cells on Broadway's floor were as high as 120°, according to the lawsuit.

"Because of the oppressive heat and his severe asthma, Michael began to struggle to breathe. Between gasps for air, he pleaded for help from his friends in the cell's next to him," the lawsuit states. "Michael's voice was already weak when he told them that he couldn't breathe."

Prison guards and medical staff knew he was in danger, but when Broadway started gasping for air, they didn't make sure he got immediate medical attention, according to the lawsuit.

Despite other prisoners alerting guards that Broadway was struggling to breathe, prison staff did not call for immediate medical treatment, according to the lawsuit. It wasn't until 15 to 20 minutes later that a nurse finally arrived at his cellhouse, and even then, the nurse refused to go up the stairs because it was "too hot" and insisted Broadway would need to come down to her, the lawsuit claims.

It wasn't until several minutes later that the nurse finally went up to Broadway's cell, without bringing any medical equipment, where she found him unconscious. Once she arrived, the nurse administered two doses of naloxone, which is used to treat opioid overdoses, even though Broadway had not taken any drugs.

When the naloxone had no effect, the nurse and other prison staff waited several more minutes before calling 911. It wasn't until nearly an hour after Broadway first called for help that an ambulance took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy later determined he died from asthma, with heat stress deemed a "significant contributing condition," according to the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.  

Three months before Broadway's death, Gov. JB Pritzker announced plans to demolish and replace Stateville, citing "hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance costs from years of neglect."

In August, a federal judge ordered the state to move most of the prisoners at Stateville to other prisons by the end of September, after civil rights attorneys had argued the conditions at Stateville were too dangerous.

Broadway's family said Stateville should have been closed even sooner, because of poor living conditions at the nearly 100-year-old prison.