School officials in Florida’s Volusia County School are insisting that a school nurse was perfectly correct in refusing to give a boy his inhaler during an asthma attack because a medical release form was not signed by a parent. By the time the mother arrived at the school, her son was passed out on the floor. She says that the nurse watched as her son, Michael Rudi, 17, collapsed.
The school dean found the inhaler in its original packaging with the student’s name and directions for its use. He seized the inhaler because of the absence of a form. When the boy began to have trouble breathing the mother was called to come into school. It is not clear why, if they could reach the mother, they could not get telephonic approval. More importantly, with the boy having breathing problems, the school insisted that it was still more important to get a form signed than help the child. Rudi is quoted as saying “[a]s soon as we opened up the door, we saw my son collapsing against the wall on the floor of the nurse’s office while she was standing in the window of the locked door looking down at my son, who was in full-blown asthma attack.”
Faced with this horrific situation, the Director of Student Health Services, Cheryl Selesky, still insists it was the parents’ fault for not being sure a new signed form was on file this year. There may have been a failure in supplying such a form, but that pales in comparison to the callous and irresponsible attitude to this teenager who was in obvious medical need. The school was previously made aware of the boy’s medical condition and yet stood there with an inhaler and an unsigned form in hand . . . but concluded the form was the more pressing matter.
It is also not clear why 911 was not called. The parents have filed child endangerment charges against the nurse. They also may want to consider a civil lawsuit against the school. Since the school appears primarily motivated by legal rather than medical considerations, a torts action may serve to concentrate the mind of officials.
Source: Orlando
You can wait like Adlai Stevenson until Hell freezes over but I bet you’ll not find one compelling reason for a nurse to sit idly by and watch a kid almost die while doing nothing.
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I don’t think that’s what happened…not by what I’ve read. Your ” find one compelling reason for a nurse to sit idly by and watch a kid almost die while doing nothing.”.
And I find it interesting the characterization of ‘child’ by the legal system can be applied in some instances and not others when the person in question can be as young as ….what…..9yrs old and tried as an adult in some cases????
Mespo I am guessing you are a parent….and identifying with the helplessness parents feel when they send their kids to school.
I hope you are not also someone who thinks that defunding public schools further in favour of the private sector will see an increase in staff and sanity in the schools….
Mespo, I’m glad you wrote this because the “two sides of everything” song and dance has infuriated me for quite a while now, half a dozen decades. When somebody does something TO somebody else, there’s only ONE SIDE: NO, or STOP, or WRONG, or the like. The idea that it always “takes two to tango” is utterly foolish.
One time I spoke with a journalist who had written a story about a case — skewed it completely trying to be “fair.” I said, “How could you?” He said, “I thought I came right down the middle of the road!” I said, “There’s no middle of that road!” He hemmed and hawed and I added, “If you covered the Holocaust like this you’da said, ‘The Germans and the Jews had a big fight and the Germans won.'” So he hung up on me.
Sometimes there’s only one side to something; that doesn’t mean criminal defendants don’t get a fair trial and constitutional protections, but c’mon, sometimes wrong just has to be WRONG.
Elaine M:
“Where did I imply that I thought that a child should be penalized for the failings/irresponsibility of his parents? That is something that I would never do/never have done–nor is it something that I would ever suggest.”
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Good, Then we must necessarily agree that the parent’s role in this is irrelevant to the duty owed the child by the nurse.
MINRIX:
“You made the right call. Unlike some of the others here, you understand that there are two sides to every story, and up to this point we have only heard one of those sides.”
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What’s the other side to the feds response to Hurricane Katrina? How about BP’s response to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico? What about McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as the person a heartbeat away from the nuclear codes? Or what about Three Mile Island? How about the Italian boat captain trying to get his crew a better view of shore?Need more info in these cases, too?
Two sides to the story is a myth sometimes, but usually spewed by people unhappy with the obvious facts and resulting condemnation. You can wait like Adlai Stevenson until Hell freezes over but I bet you’ll not find one compelling reason for a nurse to sit idly by and watch a kid almost die while doing nothing.
Woosty,
You made the right call. Unlike some of the others here, you understand that there are two sides to every story, and up to this point we have only heard one of those sides.
Fact: Not all asthma attacks are emergencies warranting a call to 911.
Fact: When an inhaler is not made available it does not always constitute an emergency warranting a call to 911.
The school nurse has sufficient training to make the decision as to whether or not this was an emergency necessitating a call to 911. The school nurse evidently determined that 911 did not need to be called.
So, we have a medical expert who decided not to call 911, and we have a mother who screwed up by not signing the waiver that would have enabled the nurse to provide the inhaler saying that the nurse should have called 911. – As I would in most cases, I’m going to side with the expert until such time that another expert can convince me that the nurse did the wrong thing.
mespo,
“All that you’ve said is true, but are you willing to penalize the child for the failings of the parent? That is the essence of the issue.’
Where did I imply that I thought that a child should be penalized for the failings/irresponsibility of his parents? That is something that I would never do/never have done–nor is it something that I would ever suggest.
fair enuff…
Woosty:
And, given new information, I may end up agreeing with you. But that “new information” must be very compelling.
Elaine M:
All that you’ve said is true, but are you willing to penalize the child for the failings of the parent? That is the essence of the issue.
“….it would take an uber-fool to disagree with the loudest voice, no matter what the truth is….”
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yup, apparently that’s me too…
Mespo, as a lawyer, you may have more information about this than I but given what I have read, the video of the ‘child’ and his mother, the fact that there is NO STATEMENT from the Nurse or the school other than to say that they support her actions, then at THIS TIME, I am not willing to come down on any 1 person as causal. There is something that needs addressed. That is what I see. As far as blamng, that Sir, would be your very loud voice.
You may end up being correct, I may end up ultimately agreeing with you, until then I’m not willing to make another victim.
As far as public servants go, as a general class they deserve better protections as they are usually catching crap from both sides of the fence…..
mespo,
You perceive that I implied some level of exoneration for the nurse because I made “distracting” comments. I don’t. I never said nor meant to imply that the nurse had an excuse for not helping that student when he was having an asthmatic attack. Did I take the cutting edge off the essential point? I don’t know. Maybe. Still, I think it important to bring up parents’ responsibilities when it comes to the issue of their child’s well being. I saw quite a lot during my many years of teaching–including parents who sent sick children to school–some with high fevers–because the parents wanted to go Christmas shopping or get work done around the house; parents of means who sent their child to school without lunch or lunch money two or three times a week over an extended period of time–even after notes were sent home to them; parents who forgot to pick up their child after school was dismissed. (He sat in the front lobby for hours while school staff tried to contact his parents. Someone even drove over to the child’s house to see if the parents or someone responsible might be at home). I could go on. I always took my parental responsibilities very seriously–not all parents do.
Woosty:
“IF I WERE to look for someone to blame, it would certainly not, in this instance ESPECIALLY, be the Nurse ALONE.”
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You can blame anyone else you please: the nurse’s mom for having her, her nursing school for graduating her with little apparent conscience, the school district for hiring her without checking to see if she has a pulse, the child’s doctor for not sky writing above the school that any responsible adult has permission to administer the life saving meds he prescribed to the child when the child is writhing on the ground desperate for oxygen, even the nurse’s auto mechanic for getting her car to operate properly that fateful day, but you cannot blame the parents whose only “crime” was sending their kid to school that day expecting that the public “servants” they regularly pay under pain of prison would try to help their child avoid a foreseeable fatal danger that everyone knew the child was exposed to. Blaming parents for not filling out some bureaucratic form (even assuming it was ever sent to them which is in grave doubt) is excuse making of the lowest order. Our public employees work for us not the other way ’round, and when they don’t perform they should be gone, No muss, no fuss … just gone. That’s why they call it a public trust. We should be able to “trust” them to have more sense than God gave a billy goat!
Elaine M:
You are not appearing testy; you just want you point clear. My problem with some distracting comments about the role of the parents is that it seems to imply some level of exoneration for the nurse, It is no excuse in my mind if the form was signed or not. Woosty’s “Chicken Little” approach (likely caused by her own bad experience in court elsewise why would she mention it) to caring for a critically ill child is scary to me and seems at odds with common sense, common decency, and the oath the nurse took. My only objection to your commentary on the role of the parents is that is takes the cutting edge off the essential point you make that the nurse was ultimately responsible during the critical time and she –and the school — failed miserably.
Elaine,
No worries.
“Blog frustration” hits everyone sometime.
Gene H.,
I don’t mean to appear testy. I’ve felt frustrated because some people on this thread appear to think that I’ve implied/said that the nurse shouldn’t have done anything to help the student because she didn’t have written permission. That is not the fact. I’ve also been accused of being callous because I’ve brought things into the discussion that I thought were pertinent to the subject at hand.
Elaine,
I can only say “I wasn’t being critical of what you had said” so many ways.
If you choose to take offense after that?
That is your decision.
Gene,
I thought I had made the point that one didn’t NEED to have written permission or to have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed in order to call 911 in case of this medical emergency. Couldn’t that be inferred from my comments?
Elaine,
I wasn’t being critical of what you had said. I was merely pointing to Mike A’s excellent (and I think on point) earlier summary.
Malisha
1, May 31, 2012 at 10:55 am
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yes, corruption or mistake, the widened economic and social gap have created these fears. I get it, I saw the vid of the angry ‘burn the nurse’ mother….no one wants to deal w/her. No one wants to look at the source of the problems….just blame the nurse, who by the way, if my experience is any indication….has probably been screaming to fix the problem for years and whose entreaties have fallen on deaf ears…..
Got a question for you guys. I was hospitalized, total bed rest, for a long period of time. Long story short, in all that time I was given no blood thinner, standard procedure for a bed fast person. I kept telling Doc that I had broken one of my ribs some how. I later found out that I had a blood clot from my heel to my groin, they never did discover it and sent it home with me. After other complications, went to local doc. He discovered it, but the clot went to my left lung nine times and has now calcified, which means I will have it for the rest of my life. Very painful and effects my breathing constantly. All I heard was sue, sue, sue. Never crossed my mind to sue. Now I’m being sued by the hospital because my blue cross and blue shield didn’t pay anything for some reason. My question is this, would u guys have sued if you were me?
Gene,
“That the parents didn’t have all the i’s dotted and the school didn’t have all the t’s crossed does not change that the school and its employee the nurse acted without that all too rare commodity – common sense – in a situation where someone’s life was in danger.”
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Haven’t I already made it clear that I thought that the nurse or school administrators were at fault for not doing anything to help the student who was having an asthmatic attack?
Some of my previous comments:
– The school was definitely at fault for not calling 911.
– School systems usually have rules about measures that should be taken in case of a medical emergency. This system did–but they weren’t followed.
– I agree that there is no excuse for the child not having been given any medical attention.
– Evidently, there was a policy in place–but the nurse didn’t follow it.
– It looks like all school personnel involved in this sad situation were at fault. Not one of them did anything to help the boy. It wasn’t just the nurse who had a “brain freeze.”
– The nurse or someone at the school should have called 911. Could you stand there and watch a child struggling for his breath and not do anything to help him?
– That said, if I were a school nurse or administrator, I wouldn’t take a chance with a child who was having an asthmatic attack.
– I’d say that many employers these days don’t want workers/employees who use common sense and good judgment, who think for themselves, who speak out and/or dare to criticize workplace policies and the status quo–they want workers/employees who live by/follow the company rules.