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
It is outrageous that a piece of paper is more important than a child’s life or anyone’s life! The parents should pursue legal action against the school!
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One more thing, a poster was talking about his/her child having asthma. They have a treatment now that has been very successful and much less invasive. It’s called, bronchial thermoplasty, muscle gets thickened over time from the extra effort of breathing ‘harder’. Radio waves are used to reduce the extra muscle that has accumulated in the lining of the lungs. I checked it out on you tube. It’s given some people enormous relief. Hope this helps someone. belle
I just want to thank everyone on here. Been on the internet forever and you guys are my very first blog. I’ve looked around since then, just out of curiosity, and I always end up back here listening to you guys.
It’s like a little community. I know, I’m corny….
Belle, I just read the thread part where you asked about suing. I am not a lawyer and my case was against doctors. The main doctor perjured himself in court, the Pa. Superior court said so, plus the proof of negligence and malpractice was overwhelming (ignoring defensive pre surgical tests for instance). IMy first lawyer was allowed off the case after doing almost no work and left me with no attorney. I represented myself, lost but preserved the record for appeal. I went to a man with whom I went to high school. Good attorney, very good rep. Superior court granted the appeal, based on the proven perjury. Nevertheless my attorney forced me, literally, to settle for bupkis, no where near lifetime med expenses, much less punitive. The case was worth millions, other lawyer, after the fact (and before said so). It was in the courts for 14 years (not a mistype). I alwasy tell folks think hard and long because the tsauris from the suing, court, and possibly even your own attorney, may well not be worth it,
I am so sorry for what you went through. Have you talked with the hospital administrator about the bill issue and what happened? He/she may turn out to be willing to write it off.
Thank you for the advice about the hospital admin. The lawyer has been my main concern, so much so that I never thought about the most practical solutions. WOW. Thank you again.
I check constantly to see if they have any medical advancement concerning these, as they call them, ‘hard to remove blood clots’ from ones lungs. Turns out they do now. Little bitty vacs that will remove the, even if they are calcified. I have three pieces in the left lung and I’m so very tempted. I want to learn more about the procedure since it’s fairly new. I can tell ya, the thought of taking just one breath like I used to would be heaven on earth for me. Not being dramatic, just plain truthful. Breathing is supposed to be an unconscious body function, I am aware of every single one.
When I got to where I could speak, I asked the doc at Barnes if he could put a screen in my leg to keep it from moving anymore. His answer, the blood clot is huge, if we do that it would kill you. Too dangerous, he says.
I can surely thank you for the advice about the admin. WOW, Gonna call that hospital tomorrow. Thank you so much leejcaroll.
sorry, it must still be a tad raw….
Oh Woosty, I was only referring to sex to make my “reductio ad absurdum” comment more interesting, funnier. I figured you were in probate court (excactly the case with Dickens’ BLEAK HOUSE) and actually, when I wrote about “sadistic and diseased strangers,” I was mentally picturing a certain judge who liked to wear light blue robes. He just retired last year and probably still pro tems.
Anyway, it was my attempt at humor.
It can be as dangerous as unprotected sex with sadistic and diseased strangers. (Often, in court, you are at the mercy of sadistic and diseased strangers.)
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Malisha, I wasn’t in court for sex, it was a probate of an estate. It was also 90% complete in the first year when the family attorney died and before any ‘strangers’ became involved.
It opened in 1999 and was just closed in 2011. Diseased it was that court.
Woosty, I don’t know how I got grouped in with people who were, in your opinion, perhaps trying to play down the message you were giving Belle about what can happen to someone in court. Please, if I did that or seemed to do that, accept my apology for misspeaking. I am 100% with you on the impression that stepping into a courtroom is probably one of the most dangerous activities a person can ever engage in. It can be as dangerous as unprotected sex with sadistic and diseased strangers. (Often, in court, you are at the mercy of sadistic and diseased strangers.)
All I was telling Belle was that if she wanted referrals, I would be glad to try to get some decent ones her way, but starting with a doctor who was herself a battered woman, and who understands all sorts of things besides medicine, and who is a Southerner by temperament and personality.
To you, I give my condolences for your court experience and also, my “solidarity” by providing a quote from Charles Dickens’ book BLEAK HOUSE, in which a probate case called Jarndyce versus Jarndyce figured prominently:
“This is the Court of Chancery, which…so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart, that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give — who does not often give — the warning: ‘Suffer any wrong that can be done to you rather than come here.'”
And in general, I don’t even LIKE Dickens, but this quotation is as much a part of my consciousness now as is my consciousness now.
Mespo, with all due respect, and I do mean that, a person can get clobbered in court BECAUSE they expect accountability. If you trust the system and believe it is going to hold people accountable in accordance with law, precedent and just common decency, the clobbering you can sustain in a court proceeding that is no respecter of any of these principles is just inhuman. Some appellate cases make this very clear, but most people cannot afford appeals of anything, especially if their clobbering in court has deprived them of the money to hire good appellate counsel!
I don’t personally know what happened to Woosty in court, but I’m just sayin’…
OS, thank you. I’ve said enough about my experience except to say that there was obvious corruption and physical attacks against me that derailed any further potential involvement. The Bar was notified. I’m not so stupid that I would encourage ANYONE to put themselves at risk the way I was put at risk. I went to court because I was obligated to go to court. Probates are obligations. It did not start as anything adversarial but it was easily made so BY THE COURT AGENTS.
Mespo, as a lawyer I am sure you don’t like to hear it when your chosen profession is not lauded, but the only disdain for accountability here at this moment is yours. I didn’t just get clobbered in court. I was terrorized so as to put me in fear of my life. I had never had a problem with anyone until I became the legal rep of my mothers estate. Your response, just like the court that lost the case files, had me waiting for ‘extensions’ and re-hearings to the tune of years and years and years until my health and the estate was gone., will find anyone to blame, but themselves. In my case it was me.
And no, I would not ever ’empower’ someone to go into a forum that was so obviously and insanely ‘enabled’ to do that to people.
Woosty:
With your obvious disdain for accountability or anything approaching it, it’s no surprise to me that you got clobbered in court.
Woosty,
I was not making a direct criticism of you personally and hope you did not take it that way. I know from experience that any personal experience will sour one on a whole system–human nature is just that way. My wife once had a really bad experience with a dentist who had a great reputation, and my own experiences with him were very good, at least as far as going to the dentist can be a good experience. The end result was that she developed a deep dislike and distrust of dentists that lasted the rest of her life. The legal system gets tarred with that same brush. Voltaire once wrote that he had been ruined twice in his life; once when he was sued and lost, and once when he sued and won.
If one decides to go the legal route, there are a couple of steps to take. First, get all your facts in order, which in the case of possible medical malpractice is to gather all your medical records. Then present the facts to an attorney experienced in such matters in as dispassionate manner as you can. Hyperbole and self-serving excuses are not helpful to the lawyer in evaluating a case. The attorney will tell you if he or she thinks you have a case or not. For one thing, an attorney accepting a case on contingency can expect to have close to $50,000 in personal outlay on the case, win or lose. It is in the attorney’s best interest to accept only those cases where there is a reasonable expectation of winning. Mespo’s advice to Belle is good. Get your stuff together all in one place and check with the local bar association to locate a lawyer who is both competent and is willing to work with the client on a contingency.
Filing and pursuing even the most righteous lawsuit is even less fun than going to a bad dentist. Expect onerous and invasive discovery, hostile cross examinations and opposing experts accusing you of being responsible for your injury. The job of your own lawyer is to counter the attacks and shield the client as much as is humanly possible. So, in summary, the first step is to find out what your own legal status is. If the statute of limitations has expired in Belle’s case, it is probably all over, unless as Mespo said, it can be converted to some sort of contract dispute.
In the interest of full disclosure and FWIW, as of a month ago, I am a plaintiff in an eminent domain lawsuit against the Federal Government. I fully expect to win. There will not be a great deal of money involved, but do expect to be adequately reimbursed for giving up a strip of property for government use. I am bracing as I expect to get an interrogatory soon. I hate those things, but that is the way the system works, and we can use the responses to the interrogatory to establish our own position which we believe to be airtight.
I wish both you and Belle the very best.
Otteray Scribe
Being a lay person I just wanted an opinion. I don’t think you guys, and gals, really appreciate what you bring to the table for people such as myself. Where else can you get such sound advice ? Choosing what to do with that advice is totally my decision. I could listen to you guys all day. One thing I have learned, no matter how right I KNOW I am means nothing in a court room. At this point, the farther I can stay away from a hospital/doctor the better I feel. The fact that I have to go on a monthly basis has made me a little better. I expect more improvement over time. It’s mind over matter for me now. Not long ago it was pure ole d panic. One other thing, I’m not totally flat on my back, and totally dependent on a Dr.s decision. I can get up and leave if I see fit. That makes a world of difference.
Dear Mespo, OS/raff, Malisha etal…,
I did not, nor would I, give Belle legal advice. Any advice I have to give is based on personal experience. One that is shared by many in response to the legal community exhibiting an expression of habitual behavior and excusing it by touting an ‘adversarial’ system that does not, apparently, know how to operate unless they be hammer to someone else as nail…..whether or not that dynamic is realistic, appropriate or even necessary.
But you know that. Belle, what you see is what you get….lawyers are rarely able to walk away without making someone ELSE the bad. Taking things to court is a highly risky business both personally and financially. There is no outcome guarantee….they will tell you that AFTER they get you in the paying seat.
Dear Mespo, my self esteem is just fine. It was not my esteem of self that suffered in my legal tribulation. But I do recognize the pattern of making a personal jab to engender an emotional response thereby deflecting a reasonable persons eye to the facts.
Woosty
Honestly, if I was a lawyer I would probably be hesitant about giving advice to anyone on here. I probably know a couple of ppl that would jump and run with that advice. Spouting that a lawyer told me to do this or do that. I take the opinions and advice I read on here serious , file it away and ponder over all the aspects. and when I say file it away, I don’t mean in a cabinet. It would be stupid for me not to. I also have enough sense to know that even though crappy care is responsible for part of my physical problems, directly responsible actually, I also know that it’s a whole different ballgame when it gets in the hands of another. No matter how right I feel I am.
OS/Raff:
I’m hoping she might be within the S/L. Maybe she can work a contract theory that has a longer period in most states.
What OS said! good job Mespo( as usual) steering Belle in the right direction.
Mespo, worst case here for Belle is if the statute of limitations has expired. Many states have passed laws reducing the SoL to very short times. In our state it is one year, which means that some cases the patient does not discover the full extent of the damage done before the statute runs. That is what has happened to the older of my two daughters.
I agree with your advice to Belle completely. I hate it when non-lawyers give well intentioned but totally misguided legal advice.
Belle, send me the info at my e-mail address and I’ll forward it to the fine (and brilliant) doctor in Mississippi (Greenwood, to be precise) and she will write a little e-mail with some advice, and I’ll also send it, with the physician’s comments, to a plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyer I know who takes on bad guys on contingency; if he can’t help he will give you referrals of folks in the network. Take the step. I know there are plenty of terrible lawyers out there but there are also a number of good ones and they won’t win if you don’t win, so it’s worth a try. 🙂
Woosty:
You’re right. No need to empower belle. Let’s just let her wallow in the injustice and then tell her there is nothing she can do unless she finds someone willing to work for free to help her.
You need to work on that self-esteem thing — and quit giving legal advice. Maybe some counseling would help.
A supportive family and friend network would have gotten her to a lawyer long ago.
Friends, family, church….. They stayed with me for over a month, night and day.The doctors called them in and at that time a lawyer was the least of everyone’s worries, If you get my drift….. No one points me toward anything or anyone. I wasn’t even going to reply to the post but I couldn’t just leave the comment unanswered about my family and friends not giving me the support system that I needed. That’s as far from the truth as you can get…
Just so were clear on that. belle.
You’re worth precisely what you think you are worth.
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BELLE,
Don’t fall for that creepy enticement, you are worth more.
if you take that road understand that the hell the lawyers will put you through will line thier pockets and it will be at the further expense of your health.
If you have a VERY supportive family, or church, or circle of friends, discuss it with them first. THEY are the ones who will be picking up the pieces of you after the lawyers decide just how far you can be spread to validate what they think THEY are worth. And at the end of the day, it will not be justice, but greed, that gets it way.