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
lottakatz:
this is happening to older folks too, medicare/medicaid is being ripped off by doctors who see the elderly as their cash cow. Many are alone and are being taken advantage of by “sweet” doctors who pay attention to them and bill er excuse me bilk the crap out of the tax payer.
From the University of Michigan:
U-M study: Asthma inhaler misuse widespread among anti-social teens
May 07, 2008
http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/6543
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Nearly one out of four teens who use an asthma inhaler say their intent is to get high.
Findings from a new University of Michigan study identified high levels of asthma inhaler misuse among anti-social youths, who displayed higher levels of distress and were more likely to abuse other substances.
“Our findings indicate that inhaler misuse for the purposes of becoming intoxicated is both widespread and may justifiably be regarded as a form of substance abuse in many cases,” said Brian Perron, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and study’s lead author.
Perron co-authored the study with Matthew Howard, a professor at the University of North Carolina.
The researchers conducted a survey assessing substance use, psychiatric symptoms and anti-social behaviors among 723 adolescents in 32 residential treatment facilities. About 27 percent of youths who had been prescribed an inhaler used it excessively. In addition, one-third of all youths in the sample had used an asthma inhaler without a prescription.
Asthma inhaler misusers were more psychiatrically distressed and prone to suicidal thoughts and attempts than youths who did not misuse their inhalers to get high, the study shows. Many inhaler abusers reported positive feelings of euphoria, relaxation and increased confidence during or immediately following inhaler use. Adverse reactions noted included feeling more dizzy, headaches, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, irritability and confusion.
Rates of misuse were elevated among girls and whites in the sample, the study shows.
Thanks Elaine, it’s that last forward slash in my url I guess.
WOOSTY–
The last sentence in the first paragraph: says the nurse watched with the inhaler.
Apparently she must have had it in her hands. Absolutely unbelievable!
lottakatz,
Your link to the Bloomberg article didn’t work. Here’s the correct URL:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/dental-abuse-seen-driven-by-private-equity-investments.html/
The nurse should have called 911 as soon as the child displayed distress and the parent for directions as soon as the inhaler was found. To allow him to pass out without taking some affirmative action was irresponsible IMO.
Having said that though, I’m kinda’ on the side of the school policy here in not providing medication to students without a specific letter of consent. There is too much room for abuse when kids are subject to medical treatment outside of a doctors office and without a parent present. I’d advocate a separate signed consent form for every specific procedure and medication that went beyond a bandaid for a scraped knee. The kind of broad consent form used by at least one school in the following (scandalous) story about the profit-motive driven, free market approach to providing dental work to kids in a school setting is a no-no in my opinion.
“Dental Abuse Seen Driven by Private Equity Investments”
“Isaac Gagnon stepped off the school bus sobbing last October and opened his mouth to show his mother where it hurt.
She saw steel crowns on two of the 4-year-old’s back teeth. A dentist’s statement in his backpack showed he had received two pulpotomies, or baby root canals, along with the crowns and 10 X-rays — all while he was at school. Isaac, who suffers from seizures from a brain injury in infancy, didn’t need the work, according to his mother, Stacey Gagnon.”
“I was absolutely horrified,” said Gagnon, of Camp Verde, Arizona. “I never gave them permission to drill into my son’s mouth. They did it for profit.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/dental-abuse-seen-driven-by-private-equity-investments.htm
http://inhalant-info.blogspot.com/2008/05/deliberate-misuse-of-inhaler-found-in.html Abuse of asthma inhalers goes on also. The schools have a lot to deal with.
Kraken,
I taught at an elementary school. I think it unwise for young children to have drugs in their possession. I also think it best for certain drugs like Ritalin to be given to children at home and not sent to school in their lunchboxes. I also think it unwise for teenagers to take drugs like Ritalin to school.
Not all children are responsible about about taking their drugs when they should. Kids are kids. They lose/misplace things. They forget to do things.
This student’s school system allowed him to have his inhaler with him at school–as long as the school had a medical release form signed by his parents. I do think a seventeen-year-old can be responsible about the use of his inhaler.
*****
“Even IF you accept the fact that a piece of paper wasn’t signed, human compassion ALONE should have prompted some assistance (and I don’t mean calling mom…what if she was at work, an hour away and couldn’t get there right away?).”
Where did I imply or state that the boy in this story should not have received some type of treatment? I left a comment stating that the school was at fault in this case.
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/05/24/students-goes-into-asthma-attack-but-school-nurse-refuses-to-let-him-use-inhaler-without-a-signed-parental-form-nurse-watches-with-inhaler-as-student-collapses/#comment-374094
Elaine M. 1, May 24, 2012 at 9:20 am
From the article:
“Selesky said the district is looking into whether proper procedures were followed by the school, and while nurses can’t give medications without the proper authorization, it is district policy to call 911 when a student cannot breath[e].”
*****
The school was definitely at fault for not calling 911.
**********
I also wrote the following comment;
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/05/24/students-goes-into-asthma-attack-but-school-nurse-refuses-to-let-him-use-inhaler-without-a-signed-parental-form-nurse-watches-with-inhaler-as-student-collapses/#comment-374153
Elaine M. 1, May 24, 2012 at 11:19 am
rafflaw,
I agree that there is no excuse for the child not having been given any medical attention.
*****
Teens Abusing And Selling Ritalin for High
Feb. 25
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125327&page=1
Excerpt:
A growing number of young people are snorting Ritalin — a much-lauded drug for hyperactive children — to lose weight, study for exams and in some cases, just to get high, according to some drug experts.
Teens and 20-somethings are the key abusers, and some even go to their doctors and fake symptoms in order to get prescriptions for Ritalin that they subsequently misuse themselves, and even sell to their friends, experts said.
“I’d take six, seven, eight pills at a time,” said Jacob Stone, a high school student at Sobriety High, a drug treatment school in Minneapolis, who used to abuse Ritalin. “I’d snort them. Along the way, I knew a couple who would melt them down and shoot them up.”
There has been a six-fold increase in emergency room visits associated to Ritalin abuse over the past decade, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks drug abuse data for federal health authorities. There were 271 Ritalin-related emergency room visits in 1990 and 1,478 visits in 2001.
“All the kids know about Ritalin abuse,” said Dr. Robert Millman, a psychiatry professor at Cornell University-Weill Medical College in New York. “They know about other kids sharing their pills, and they know about kids snorting it.”
Stone began misusing Ritalin after being diagnosed with ADHD as a sixth-grader, and later sold the prescription drug to fellow high school students, charging $5 for three blue 10-milligram pills or one orange 30-milligram pill.
“And the people who were most interested in it were the younger kids who weren’t trying to do real drugs,” Stone said. “They wanted something that seemed like it was okay to do and that still would give them a good buzz.”
Kraaken,
I agree with Elaine that I don’t normally agree that kids should be allowed to carry their own medication with them at school. However, this case might be an exception because the student can die before the nurse or administrator gets to the scene with the inhaler. The asthma can kill him pretty quickly if he has an attack.
Answered my own question. In the video, the teen says the nurse had the inhaler but wouldn’t give it to him. So the nurse did accept medication without an approval on file and did nothing about it.
Reblogged this on Glory to man in the highest.
The Sunlight Foundation determined that Congress is talking at nearly a full grade level below the level at which members spoke seven years ago, according to its study of the Congressional Record—the official record of members’ proceedings and speech. The foundation applied the Flesch-Kincaid grade level test to congressional conversations and found that today’s Congress speaks “at about a 10.6 grade level, down from 11.5 in 2005,” senior fellow Lee Drutman wrote in his analysis. Sunlight also found that the newest as well as the most conservative members of Congress on average speak at the lowest grade level.
yea, we are getting dumber
Elaine,
Thanks for the info. I need to start reading the full article before commenting.
““He [the student] said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of his locker last Friday. ”
So what did the dean do with the medication? The student had a long history of asthma, the medication was in its original packaging with his name and directions on it. Just a wild-a.. guess here, but maybe, just maybe, the student would need it in a life-threatening event. Did the dean just put it in her/his desk? Give it to the nurse? Flush it down the toilet?
That common sense gene suggests that she/he: Give it back to the student at the end of the day Friday with an admonition to get the paperwork in on Monday.
The student has probably been carrying his inhaler all school year, as he had for the past several years. With only a couple of weeks to go, what could go wrong?
“I understand fear of liability but, like others say why the heck didnt she call 911 then? and the inhaler had kids name on it, it is ot as tough the student pulled some med out of his pocket and said “Give me this, Nurse”.
Litigation happens often as a means to force behavior change.
————————–
I may have missed it? but I don’t see where the med was in anyones possession on the day.
Yes, litigation has an uncanny way of changing behaviors…. a good hard look at the stock market and the behaviors of the banksters are a good example ;). A few good suits and we won’t have to worry about anymore of those pesky public sector schools /jobs/ competition…. 😉
“It would be extremely unwise to have children carrying their medications around with them or keeping them in their lockers at school.”
Elaine, that’s just wrong. These children learn to take their meds when they are needed. There is nothing ‘unwise’ in the least by teaching the child, who probably knows when he/she is experiencing an asthma attack or other health emergency, how to be responsible for his/her treatment (especially asthma). Do you REALLY think that, at the age of 17, this ‘child’ didn’t know that he was having an attack and that he needed his inhaler? I expect that the REAL reason is found in your next statement;
” What if a child found another child’s drug and took it? What if a student sold his/her drug to another student? (Thank you, Richard Nixon) ”
My sister has had asthma all her life. I remember very well her struggles to breathe when she had her attacks. Even IF you accept the fact that a piece of paper wasn’t signed, human compassion ALONE should have prompted some assistance (and I don’t mean calling mom…what if she was at work, an hour away and couldn’t get there right away?). This was at the very LEAST, child endangerment. While I am not someone who thinks very highly of our system of Tort law (sorry, professor) this is clearly a case where the nurse’s licence should be revoked, and the principal should be fired. But then it IS Florida. What else would you expect?
Shano,
Good point about diet. Get rid of the three Ps: pesticides, preservatives, and processing. Eat fresh organic, as much raw as possible.
SHANO:
eat more walnuts, very high in Omega 3’s. Also grass fed beef, it has more Omega 3 than salmon from what I have read.
I dont think Dr. Atkinson knew that when he invented the Atkins Diet. He saw heart attacks going up after the early 20’s and figured it was processed food and looked at our diet of meat and heart attacks in the 19th and early 20th century.
The grass fed beef was protecting us, or so it seems now. But you can lose weight on his diet and pretty fast too, even if you are sedentary.
Here lies the U.S.A.,
litigated and politicized to death,
the rest of the world sighs and utters a collective…
HOORAY!!!!!!
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Nurse-refuses-student-inhaler-during-asthma-attack/-/1637132/13560430/-/wm13uaz/-/index.html
————————————
It looks to me like there is more to this story than meets the eye. I would have called 911 if the O2 sat were dropping, nail beds bluing, certainly if subjectively I heard ‘I can’t breathe’….but I don’t see the whole picture here….like maybe they did not have his meds in thier possesion any longer….his med was found the previous week, what transpired in the phone call w/Mom???? Name calling? ”Don’t call 911, I’ll be right there?”
17 years old and he was that passive? He did not feel too threatened or endangered enough to initiate a 911 on his own? Something is not jiving in this story.
I know 1 thing for sure….it is dangerous, from all sides, to be a nurse these days.
bettykath,
“Has our dna been scrambled such that the common sense gene is no longer functioning?”
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.