Deltona, Floriduh - Volusia County School officials stand by a Deltona High School nurse's decision to refuse a student his inhaler during an asthma attack, citing a lack of a parent's signature on a medical release form.
"It's like something out of a horror film. The person just sits there and watches you die," said Michael Rudi, 17. "She sat there, looked at me and she did nothing."
He said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of his locker last Friday. The inhaler was still in its original packaging -- complete with his name and directions for its use; however, the school took it away because his mother hadn't signed the proper form for him to have it.
School leaders called Sue Rudi when her son started having trouble breathing. She rushed to the office and was taken back to the nurse's office by school administrators and they discovered the teen on the floor.
"As 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," Rudi said.
Michael Rudi said when he started to pass out from his attack, the nurse locked the door.
"I believe that when I closed my eyes I wasn't going to wake up," he said.
The Director of Student Health Services, Cheryl Selesky, said that parents must sign the medical release form each year, which allows students to carry their prescribed drugs with them in school.
This year, the district had no record of his Rudi's signature, said Selesky.
"I mean its common sense if I saw an animal on the street in distress I would probably stop to help, why wouldn't she help a child," Sue Rudi said.
But Rudi is a senior, and his mother said the district has had records of his asthma throughout his years in the school.
She thinks her son could have died because of a technicality.
"How dare you deny my son something that we all take for granted, breath," said Sue Rudi. "Why didn't someone call 911?"
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.
Selesky could not explain why 911 was never called.
"I understand if you can't give it to him call 911," Sue Rudi said. "Why did you not call 911?"
Sue Rudi said she worries about the next student caught in a similar situation, and has filed charges against the nurse with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
"I want to press child endangerment charges for something they did to my son," Rudi said in the 911 call.
Local 6 reached out to the school district officials for more information, but they declined to interview.
WKMG Orlando
"It's like something out of a horror film. The person just sits there and watches you die," said Michael Rudi, 17. "She sat there, looked at me and she did nothing."
He said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of his locker last Friday. The inhaler was still in its original packaging -- complete with his name and directions for its use; however, the school took it away because his mother hadn't signed the proper form for him to have it.
School leaders called Sue Rudi when her son started having trouble breathing. She rushed to the office and was taken back to the nurse's office by school administrators and they discovered the teen on the floor.
"As 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," Rudi said.
Michael Rudi said when he started to pass out from his attack, the nurse locked the door.
"I believe that when I closed my eyes I wasn't going to wake up," he said.
The Director of Student Health Services, Cheryl Selesky, said that parents must sign the medical release form each year, which allows students to carry their prescribed drugs with them in school.
This year, the district had no record of his Rudi's signature, said Selesky.
"I mean its common sense if I saw an animal on the street in distress I would probably stop to help, why wouldn't she help a child," Sue Rudi said.
But Rudi is a senior, and his mother said the district has had records of his asthma throughout his years in the school.
She thinks her son could have died because of a technicality.
"How dare you deny my son something that we all take for granted, breath," said Sue Rudi. "Why didn't someone call 911?"
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.
Selesky could not explain why 911 was never called.
"I understand if you can't give it to him call 911," Sue Rudi said. "Why did you not call 911?"
Sue Rudi said she worries about the next student caught in a similar situation, and has filed charges against the nurse with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
"I want to press child endangerment charges for something they did to my son," Rudi said in the 911 call.
Local 6 reached out to the school district officials for more information, but they declined to interview.
WKMG Orlando
"Just doing my job, ma'am."
Yeah? Well fuck you, too.
I'm surprised my school didn't change the rules after that one month when 3 kids were sent to the hospital because they weren't allowed to have epipens on them and the paramedics actually got there faster than the school nurse did with the epipens.
I would never wish an allergic reaction or severe asthma attack on anyone, but I seriously fucking wish people understood what it FEELS like. To have your own body betray your need for oxygen. To just completely shut down on you like that when everything in your body is screaming, "I. NEED. AIR." It's beyond terrifying. And to let it get to the point of passing out is the worst. That's just fucking cruel.
I hate people. :|
...hating people right along with you. What the hell.
Wait a goddamn motherfucking minute, what do you mean she locked the door? Was she fucking TRYING to kill him?? In any case she should be fired, I wouldn't want my kid's health in the hands of a nurse who just stands there watching a kid slowly die without administering or summoning any help whatsoever.
Sure as hell sounds like it. :-(
I tell you something right now - if this had happened to my child, pray that I don't get there before the paramedics do. Because after I make sure my child is going to make it, I will make sure that somebody besides my child is going to be leaving the premises on a fucking stretcher.
I've had about 3 asthma attacks while I was in grade school (I don't have full-blown asthma like my mother) and I can fully sympathize with this poor kid. The feeling of not being able to breathe is truly horrible.
with childrenagain.Fixed that for you.
ETA: I also suspect zero-tolerance policies are behind this bullshit. Those policies need to be eradicated, like yesterday.
Edited at 2012-05-26 09:17 pm (UTC)
Withholding PRESCRIBED medical treatment to a patient who is obviously in dire need, whose LIFE is in imminent danger? HELLO? Who the FUCK does that?
That woman has no right to continue to call herself a nurse. NONE. I don't care WHAT the administrative regulations say; as a health care professional, she has a professional code of fucking ETHICS to follow, which she obviously chose to ignore. That is unforgiveable and inexcusable, afaic.
If the school district feels like they just HAVE to continue to employ her, they can give her a job mopping floors and scrubbing toilets, because she OBVIOUSLY can't be entrusted with any more important responsibilities.
Nursing? Uh-uh. No way. No how.
Edited at 2012-05-26 10:09 pm (UTC)
YOU DO NOT STARE AT SOMEONE TRYING TO BREATHE AND HOLD IT FUCKING BACK BECAUSE OF A PIECE OF FUCKIN PAPER! That's cruel and I would so fucking sue and make sure the nurse and the administration of the school were fired and as they were fired I would tell them to fucking burn in hell.
That's awful! I would have literally punch the fucking nurse and shoved her over, given my child the inhaler and then told them to call the police as they just committed attempted murder.
If it was me, my mom would have brought the wrath of the universe upon their heads, if it were my kid? they'd best start running. I'd be out for blood.
She didn't call 911. didn't call the parent. didn't DO anything but turn her back and lock the door? choke off her air and see how she might feel when the means to breathe is held by someone else. It isn't fun to struggle to breathe. Its less fun I imagine, when someone's holding the inhaler out of your grasp. The cruelty astounds me.
I vote for a strangling, Nurse Ratched style.
EDIT: I was trying to reply to the comment before me.
Edited at 2012-05-26 10:05 pm (UTC)
Unfortunately, all the information I've found online about nursing ethics is WAAAY too tl:dr to help me make sense of this. If anyone here who is a nurse or other health care professional can contribute anything on this topic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Seriously, isn't it a violation of a nurse's professional ethics to withhold health care from someone who is at death's door? (Please, PLEASE say it is, because otherwise, I am going to have to find a different planet to live on.)
Edited at 2012-05-26 10:21 pm (UTC)
If I didn't know the context, reading that passage would make me think I was reading a snippet from a horror film. Holy shit.
This doesn't surprise me, though - the schools down here would have the stupidest policies on shit. I remember a teacher threatening me with suspension because I was hacking up half my fucking lungs and had the nerve to pop in a throat drop so (ironically enough) I wouldn't disturb the class. You had to literally smuggle in cough drops because it was considered medication.
Edited at 2012-05-26 11:11 pm (UTC)
It's Milgram experiment kind of stuff, which is its own type of horror.