This is not about politics, it’s not about plane pr0n or the military – however it is something that should concern all of us. I would be willing to wager this happens more times than we ever know – which makes my flesh crawl.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Being an asthmatic who has had several asthma attacks I know how frightening the feeling is. Your entire body nearly seizes with panic; you can’t swallow because you can’t breathe.
Like a herd of elephants is sitting on your chest and adding more beasts with each passing second. It’s like you’ve taken a deep breath and are now trying to breathe thru a blocked straw.
The human desire to breathe is one of our strongest reflexes and when your own body betrays that reflex, the terror that ensues consumes you.
The only thing that will rescue you is your inhaler; go too long without it and you will pass out and your brain will immediately begin being deprived of oxygen. Death … follows pretty quickly.
Which are the thoughts that went thru the mind of Michael Rudi, a 17 year old high school senior in Deltona, FL … when the school nurse refused to give him the rescue inhaler that he desperately needed:
In order for students to carry their prescribed drugs with them in school, parents must sign a medical release form each year. The school had no such form for Michael to have his inhaler at school. Michael’s mother says that even so, her son has been at the school for years and they have a record of her son’s asthma.
While it may be true that the mother bears some responsibility for not ensuring that the all-important medical record was up-to-date with signatures…
…the nurse is a monster.
Sue Rudi got a call from her son’s school letting her know that her son was having trouble breathing. When she arrived and was taken back to the nurse’s office, they found her son, Michael Rudi, 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. [emphasis mine]
This chilled me to the marrow. A nurse is supposed to be there – particularly in a school environment – to ensure the safety and well-being of the students.
Bad enough she refused to give Michael Rudi his inhaler – but to lock the boy inside the office while he was in a full-blown asthma attack shows a depraved indifference to human suffering. He indicated that when his eyes started closing, he assumed he was going to die.
That’s not teenage melodrama; that was real fear that he never had to experience.
For this incident she should be fired and have her State of Florida nursing license revoked – permanently.
Which brings us to what could be the worst part of this horror story. The Volusia County School Board is supporting the nurse’s actions.
So they would be totally OK with the death of one of their students – while their nurse watched – all because some stupid piece of paperwork was not up-to-date, despite the fact that they had years of similar paperwork already on file for Michael Rudi.
As Sue Rudi pointed out so eloquently:
“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,”
Which is a damn good question. No form signed? OK. Call 911 for god’s sake. Don’t stand there like a worthless pile of shit – DO. YOUR. JOB. If you don’t feel like you have the fortitude to defend your actions to your superiors in saving the life of a student by giving him the medication he needs, call 911.
That’s what it’s there for and schools get priority service.
I have written a very strongly worded e-mail to the Volusia County School Board. For your convenience I have provided names and e-mail addresses below, if you feel properly motivated:
- Dr. Al Williams, Chairman Volusia County Schools: acwillia@volusia.k12.fl.us
- Judy Conten, Vice Chairman Volusia County Schools: jconte@volusia.k12.fl.us
I attempted to find the appropriate channel with the Florida Department of Health to file a complaint about the nurse. As you would expect their process is onerous and in fact can’t be done without the medical records related to the incident. So much as I’d like to rake this nurse over some very hot coals in her state – their process prohibits it. Surprise, surprise.
The nurse should be fired and never allowed to treat patients ever again. The members of the School Board should be forced to watch a video that depicts what it’s like to suffer an asthma attack. Or better yet, they should go thru a medical simulation that mimics the experience – personally.
Assholes.
Each and every one of them.
“You know, I’m beginning to think that sending your kids to public schools is starting to look like parental malpractice.” Glenn Reynolds
I agree with Instapundit. If I ever have kids they are going to Catholic school.
I left a big long comment and stupid wordpress ate it. Here’s what it boils down to: She did exactly what she was instructed/required to do by the onerous and detailed rules about dealing with children’s bodies, on fear of having her life/career RUINED. The proper people to rail against are the bureaucrats and lawyers who tie the hands of intelligent, well-trained people dealing with kids. That’s what’s truly horrifying–she did her job.
And yes, if I ever have kids (unlikely), they will NOT attend public schools. And I say that as a former teacher who loved teaching very much and has no bitterness toward the profession or my administrators and the wonderful nurses I knew.
I worked at a Catholic School, some years back. If a kid had asthma, the kid carried their inhaler. We might have had a nurse come once a week. If a parent needed a kid to take meds like antibiotic, the parent came up and gave it or the kid knew when to take it.
A human tragedy, so it is.
You have to wonder , at what level of retard do you have to be, to stand there basically spouting the old Nazi “following orders” meme, while a kid is laying in front of you, LITERALLY dying.
Tar
Feathers
Another example of the death of common sense. I would bet that this nurse is actually not a monster out side of school, but has been conditioned by the zero-tolerance bureaucracy to abandon her instincts – and be just a cog in the machine.
We’re deciding where to send my oldest son (4 1/2) to kindergarten next year. We have a good public elementary school, and I was looking forward to saving the money we’re currently spending on preschool/daycare. But it’s sh*t like this that really has me going the other way. We also have a good private school nearby that (conveniently) would cost about the same.
I was a public school kid and I would like it if my kids could be public school kids, but I am coming to grips with the fact that mine was a (very) different time.
That nurse is a Grade-A Bureaucrat. Those kind have lost all their humanity.
And there’s plenty of them around.
i think – if I were his mother – I’d want to march in their and punch that nurse in the face.
Only the thought of arrest – and jail – would keep me from doing that.
“I would bet that this nurse is actually not a monster out side of school, but has been conditioned by the zero-tolerance bureaucracy to abandon her instincts – and be just a cog in the machine.”
Dave and Bill, you nailed it. The bureaucracy ate their minds, and that’s the way the bureaucracy wants it. Public School is no place for a child.
I would hope that someone, like a nurse, who is trained to care for people – would shove aside the bureaucracy B.S. when faced with a patient in supreme distress. Especially a child or young adult.
What this hurse did has no possible excuse; my dearest friend is a nurse and I can see Liz be willing to lose her job to provide the proper care to someone in need.
You also have to talk about the School Board – holding up the rights of the nurse and their rules over the needs of a student with a serious medical condition that the school has known about for years. As an asthmatic I can assure you that it is extremely rare for rescue inhalant meds to be changed, particularly in a child. So it’s not like he was carrying meds that were any different than what he’s been carrying his entire life.
I did read that the mother is pursuing child endangerment charges against the nurse. As well she should.
And it all still beggars the question – if the nurse didn’t want to go against the rules why in hell didn’t she call 911????
There’s the KEY: why didn’t she make the 911 call?
I just found the perfect name for that nurse –
Nurse Ratched.
From One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
This story goes hand in hand with this one: http://www.bicycling.com/print/61275 wherein a school, which no doubt is teaching the kids to go green won’t allow kids to ride bikes to school and fuzz1 said, it’s the damn lawyers and bureaucrats who are causing this nonsense in far too many areas.
…indeed the first thing we’ll do…to paraphrase Willy S. a tad…is to kill all the Lawyers. Best, Frank C.
Just the latest bit of evidence that the “Government skools” are nothing less than indoctrination centers with zero concerns about the actual safety or education of students. They are lifetime job providers for the members of the education establishment, dedicated to perpetuating jobs and increasing wages and union dues.
Home schooling is the only answer, or private schools, or even some parochial schools. Public schools are badly broken and harming children more than helping them.
We see the nurse’s action is blatently wrong and contrary to common sense and common decency. The school sees it as perfectly appropriate and conforming to their policies, and therefore of no concern at all.
Speaking of Schools being indoctrination centers…
I’m kinda surprised no one has yet brought up this scary ObamaWorship story:
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/05/21/listen-teacher-yells-at-student-tells-him-he-could-get-arrested-for-criticizing-president-obama/
Video here:
It would be rather funny if it wasn’t so damned scary at the implications.
“Or better yet, they should go thru a medical simulation that mimics the experience – personally.”
Hmmm….
Waterboarding comes to mind.
I was thinking more along the lines of collapsed lung. This nurse is in severe need of wall-to-wall counseling.
I used to tell my sailors “We have rules to ensure the safe operation of the reactor. We have people to recognize when the rules are getting in the way of that goal.” The principle is pretty generic.
If this “nurse” can’t dispense any medication without written parental permission, what then is their purpose? If someone gets injured, anyone with a cell phone (everyone) can call for help from an actual medical professional. Sounds like the school system could save some money here.
Jeop – what really puts the icing on this is that the school had parental persmission for YEARS while their son attended school. It’s not like they just noticed that the parents never signed their stupid documentation; and it’s certainly not like childhood asthma cures itself in one semester. They had ample evidence that the kid had asthma that required a rescue inhaler.
And still I go back to this: why not just call 911?
My dearest friend is a nurse and I can’t imagine Liz watching this happen to anyone; she’d rather lose her job than see anyone suffer.
And yes the school could save some money by firing the nurse. But they agree with her actions so…
Kris the same kind of mentality with these morons is charging , say, a 10 year old with “drugs” when he has an aspirin in his pocket.
Or having a weapon when carrying a pocket knife.
Come to think of it, a funny story.
Last time I had the “enjoyment” of going though the airport check line this TSA guy went absolutely nuts when he saw a key chain I had for years – a .45 shell with a key ring attached where the primer used to be.
Anyone who knows anything about firearms would know that the shell was rendered harmless – but this guy thought he’d just thwarted the next big terrorist plot.
Same kind of mentality and is why I chose to drive next time rather than fly
Kris, I felt your frustration. Wow. Not only did you articulate your strong feelings to a tee but you took your frustration and anger and actually DID something about it. Many vent and do nothing. Kudos to you for writing Volusia County and providing them with that “brick to the forehead” they need in this sad situation. Love it.
Don’t mess with p*ssed off chicks on a mission of sanity!
Thank you. As an asthmatic I know exactly what that young man was feeling – the stress, the fear. And to add onto it…watch his school’s nurse lock him in a room and watch him from the other side of the door. That poor kid!
How could I not say something to those imbeciles? Seriously, a brick to the forehead is the least that they should receive.