When a middle school student collapsed during gym class in 2015, the physical education teacher wasn’t sure what to do. He called the school nurse, but she was at another campus in the district. She missed the first call, but answered the second and instructed the gym teacher to call 911. The school was located in Delano, California, a small city north of Bakersfield. The call to emergency services, however, was misrouted to Canada and had to be transferred back to local authorities.
The school nurse arrived before the paramedics. About 10 minutes had passed, and the boy was still lying face down. An autopsy revealed he died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that can cause sudden cardiac arrest. In some cases, resuscitation can save the person, but no one tried chest compressions until the nurse arrived. The boys’ parents later sued the school district and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. And an attorney on the case, Matt Clark, says he believes his clients’ son would have survived if a licensed nurse had been at the school and able to perform CPR.
