Nurse refuses student inhaler during asthma attack
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.
full: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Nurse-refuses-student-inhaler-during-asthma-attack/-/1637132/13560430/-/wm13uaz/-/index.html
Found this story via Jonathan Turley, who comments: "Since the school appears primarily motivated by legal rather than medical considerations, a torts action may serve to concentrate the mind of officials."
= new reply since forum marked as read
asthma attack when he was nineteen. Had no money, died. Left a nineteen year old widow eight months pregnant. 
I loved dennis.
you sure are doing an awful lot of wild speculation. 
when your kid has a life-threatening illness and is denied his medication for it, then locked in a room while the staff refuses to call for emergency aid and stands there watching him choke, the first thing any parent thinks is "How can I dramatize this to get my name in the news?".
I'm going out on a limb here and guessing you don't have asthma.
farpoint isn't really a nurse to start with she's a psychic.
summer?
He was obviously in enough distress that the school called his mother. That fact alone indicates the situation was real and not some trite teen drama. Geesh, I think you must be a bureaucrat, more attuned to paperwork than humanity.
and non-asthmatic kids might use it to, I don't know, get high or something. 
pride goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before the fall... ROFL!
Many--probably most--people make spelling, grammar, and usage errors, and that should not make them feel that they have no right to express political opinions--or any other kind of opinion.
Most people, including those on our own side, make errors.
Furthermore, even those of us who are supposed to be "experts" make mistakes. I can't type at all, so my posts often have typos in them, and I don't always catch them, either.
I actually didn't mean to be a butthead when I made my original comment to FarPoint, though it obviously sounded like buttheadedness on my part. The first time "should of" showed up, I put it down to a typo and didn't say anything. But the second time triggered my obnoxious inner schoolmarm, because it is something I see so often that it is like fingernails on a blackboard for me. (Oddly enough, the sound of fingernails on a blackboard doesn't bother me at all.)
The problem is that "should've" really does sound like "should of," so people fall into the error almost automatically, because they tend to forget that the last part of a contracted verb is a verb rather than something else, so they spell it phonetically.
I often see a different error that is similarly triggered. When people begin a sentence with "There's" (or "There is"
they forget that the "[font color = "red"]'s[/font]" is actually a verb, so it must agree with the subject of the sentence.
That confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the normal subject-verb order of the English sentence is inverted when the sentence begins with "There's" (or "There is" , so people fail to connect the verb with its subject, and sometimes even mistake the adverb "there" for the subject of the sentence.
Thus we get incorrect sentences like "There's many reasons why people might make such a mistake," or "There is several students waiting in the cafeteria."
I think that the error occurs less often with "There is" than with "There's" at the beginning of the sentence, though, because although in both cases the subject-verb inversion prevents some people from noticing the subject-verb agreement problem, at least in the "There is" sentence, the entire verb is apparent. In the "There's" sentence, though, just as in the case of "should of," the contracted verb just doesn't look or even feel like a verb, so the writer completely forgets that it is a verb and renders it phonetically.
For a sore throat, infection or something...sure, I understand not letting the kid have it without a signature.
But when you have a kid having an asthma attack on the fucking floor... 
we have such things like mandatory CPR and first-aid training for everyone?
Fuck the legal system for hindering us from helping one another. 
This information was definitely needed in this thread! 
I am on the front line of public health care. I frequently go before our State Legislature to testify and change the poorly written laws.
I will not heap scorn on this poor Nurse as I have walked in those shoes before. I do not know what the laws in Florida are but I know I can't give medicine without a note from the doc AND a permission note from the parent, I don't care who the medication is for. If the child is a known asthmatic and the parent's sent the meds, they know they have to sign the permission note. If the child was 18 he is considered an adult and a case can be made in court for letting him have the inhaler and dosing himself. These laws are to protect children from medication errors, such as double dosing. 
A 'known asthmatic'....I wish I had a nickel for every student that came into my clinic and said he had trouble breathing. When I look it up in the health records, there is nothing stating that the child had a history of asthma. I ask him and he says he does but the parent did not indicate it. 
We lobbied and won passage for a law that allows kids to carry their own inhalers if they can demonstrate competency. Of course I tell the parents to still send me the paperwork and an extra inhaler because kid's leave them in their back back, yesterdays pant pocket, etc.
About 911. Yes, I would have called 911 when the parents don't respond in a timely manner. But I have worked in schools that are so top down in their management that the Nurse could not generate the 911 call, the principal had to. I did not stay at that school for long but suffice it to say I have had my butt chewed out for calling 911-but if I have my license, I came always get another Nursing job. If I lose it I am SOL.
I have begged and pleaded for parents to come up for their kids. They told me they were on the way and arrive 2 hours later. We frequently walk a tightrope between helicopter parents, student that think they are entitled, school administration that want you to do it all for free, district policy that has not advanced to the 20th century let alone the 21st, and our licensure laws. They have cut our numbers to dangerous levels all the while piling on more work.
This year we had 11 Nurses retire and we have 32 openings at the end of the year. I can retire this year and I am hanging on another year but I can tell you, I am reaching the end of my rope. If it wasn't for my fellow school nurse support group and our happy hour meetings, I would never have made it as long as I have.
Last edited Tue May 29, 2012, 07:51 PM - Edit history (2)
"I don't know of any Nurse" -- I think I might know one or two. My experience with nursing staff has been overwhelmingly positive. I cannot tell you how deeply I honor the huge majority of those professionals I have encountered. That makes the very rare exception all the more shocking.
It is certainly possible that this story is overblown. I will reserve judgment, because to do otherwise would serve a huge injustice to the nurse in question. On the other hand, boy howdy, if she really did what is alleged, let the hammer fall.
I take that back. After reading the administrator's comments, if the scenario is as described he is the one who failed in his custodial duty. He diagnosed the student ("The student was never in a full-blown asthma attack." and withheld treatment. What medical expertise can he claim to decide if there is a full-blown attack or not? And isn't the inhaler supposed to be used before a full-blown attack ensues? So that pisses me off.
I offer my apology to all school nurses everywhere. This nurse was placed in a position with no authority and now is being held accountable. That's messed up.
I believe you are a true asset to the profession. 
I admire the nurses on here who had expressed they believe following state laws and their own board ethics as important to them. And, posters on here wanting them to BREAK STATE LAW and just throw their PROFESSION AND CAREER away are really out of line.
The nurse and principal in this case followed state law, and the parents knew they had neither signed the consent for nor had the doctor's office fax over the script approval. The mother is all over the internet blaming the school and the doctor's office.
If one has been wronged, one has the right to be made whole, as much as possible.
Too many people have unrealistic expectations. You eat artery clogging food at every meal and have a heart attack. After trying to open the arteries, taking medicine to help, the patient goes back to doing the same thing and expects to have his butt saved again???? And that is what we deal with.
When we try to have the patient healed with a better diet, the administration comes down on us like a ton of bricks because the patient sent a negative 'customer survey'. Call me a curmudgeon, but I refuse to call my patients 'customers'. I care about a patient, a customer is just someone who wants fries with their bypass.
This is why I love working with kids. They are still teachable. I have taught dental care, hand washing, periods, and CPR til I can recite it in my sleep....but I know that some of those little seeds I plant will take root-I have seen it happen. And that is what makes it worth my time.
