Post by title1parent on Sept 20, 2009 8:22:45 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/schools/1780524,2_1_AU20_AED_S1-090920.article
Could Lauren Laman have been saved?
September 20, 2009
By DAN CAMPANA dcampana@scn1.com
Lauren Laman was dancing with her teammates on the St. Charles North High School varsity drill team during a February 2008 practice.
Seconds later, she collapsed on the cafeteria floor. Laman's eyes rolled back and she didn't respond when her coach, Nancy Franson, called Laman's name.
Franson realized 18-year-old Laman, a senior with hopes of attending Northern Illinois University on a dance scholarship, had gone into cardiac arrest. Franson sent one of Laman's teammates to get the school principal.
Franson did CPR on Laman as another coach, Tanis Louden, and athletic trainer Theresa Perkins arrived in the cafeteria and also recognized Laman's condition.
By the time paramedics arrived, Laman was not breathing and had no pulse. An automated external defibrillator, commonly known as an AED, sat beside her body.
Those details of Laman's sudden death -- attributed to a rarely fatal heart condition -- are contained in a lawsuit her family filed earlier this year against the St. Charles School District and the three St. Charles North officials who tended to Laman.
The suit contends the three staffers properly diagnosed Laman's condition, but did not immediately get a nearby AED and failed to use it for up to 15 minutes between her collapse and when paramedics attempted to revive her -- a decision that ultimately led to Laman's death.
The lawsuit also accuses Franson of telling police that CPR and the AED were attempted after Laman collapsed.
In asking a judge to dismiss the case, the School District argues neither it nor its employees can be held liable because of Illinois' Tort Immunity Act. In the simplest sense, that act protects the actions of and decisions made by school workers and other public employees.
"We feel the School District and all the other defendants will be vindicated in this action," said Northbrook-based Gerard Cook, who represents the St. Charles district.
Laman family attorney Laura DiAndrea-Iversen disagrees, saying provisions in the state's Automated External Defibrillator Act mandate those trained on the devices to use them according to their required training. Simply put: someone certified to use an AED should use it quickly when signs of trouble arise. Not doing so equates to "willful and wanton" conduct, which negates immunity, DiAndrea-Iversen contends.
"The defendants ... knew from their training and knowledge of the AED device that delaying or withholding the use of an AED device for 13 to 15 minutes ... doomed Lauren to death," the lawsuit states.
Life without Lauren
Almost 20 months after Lauren's death, in the midst of a typically long civil case, the Lamans "want to know why things weren't done" and still struggle with their loss. DiAndrea-Iversen recalled a recent e-mail from Mary Laman that said, "I hate life without Lauren."
Across the Fox Valley, dozens of AEDs have popped up in area school districts within the last several years. A 2008 law made them a requirement at all government-run physical fitness facilities, including places such as school football stadiums.
Training of school nurses, physical education teachers and coaches are the norm. Those preparations are rarely tested, with actual uses of AEDs few and far between -- which is viewed as a good thing.
Geneva has 31 AEDs throughout district buildings, with the first arriving in 2004. In Sandwich, each school has at least one AED, with nine total around the district.
Geneva School District Assistant Superintendant Dawn George was not aware of anyone having to use an AED.
"We have not had to use them," Tom Sodaro, the Sandwich School District's safety committee leader, said. "The majority of coaches are trained. Our goal is to have all our PE teachers" trained in how to use them.
Officials in Oswego, which has 27, and West Aurora, which has 37, also reported no known uses of the devices.
Juanita Gryfinski, a school nurse and head of the St. Charles School District's health services department, says AEDs enhance "overall safety" of the district and community. St. Charles has 53 units and more than 200 people trained to use them. Gryfinski has used an AED three times.
"We have used them in emergency situations," she said, adding that was for heart rhythm readings to determine further treatment. "We've not had to use them to deliver electrical conversions."
Routine training
Training on the devices is simple, Sodaro explained, noting it can take as little as 45 minutes to learn how to use them. Typically, the devices have voice or visual prompts directing the user what to do. Some districts combine AED and CPR training because of how often they are used together.
AED technology makes them simple enough to use. "A third-grader could pick it up," the Lamans' attorney DiAndrea-Iversen said bluntly.
The district's dismissal request states the employees "are absolutely immunized from liability ... because the alleged acts or omissions on the part of the defendants involve the exercise of discretion ... even if the exercise of such discretion is abused."
University of Illinois law professor Steve Beckett says immunity laws have been around since at least the state's beginning and provide a higher level of protection for public bodies or employees. If such rules didn't exist, why would anyone work in the public sector, he asked rhetorically.
"It's difficult to sue local government entities and be successful," Beckett said.
But, he points out, the some wiggle room exists because the immunity act doesn't cover willful and wanton conduct. Although simply not using the AED might not rise to that level, he said, going against existing policies could be an entry point.
"That may be a sound argument," Beckett said.
Could Lauren Laman have been saved?
September 20, 2009
By DAN CAMPANA dcampana@scn1.com
Lauren Laman was dancing with her teammates on the St. Charles North High School varsity drill team during a February 2008 practice.
Seconds later, she collapsed on the cafeteria floor. Laman's eyes rolled back and she didn't respond when her coach, Nancy Franson, called Laman's name.
Franson realized 18-year-old Laman, a senior with hopes of attending Northern Illinois University on a dance scholarship, had gone into cardiac arrest. Franson sent one of Laman's teammates to get the school principal.
Franson did CPR on Laman as another coach, Tanis Louden, and athletic trainer Theresa Perkins arrived in the cafeteria and also recognized Laman's condition.
By the time paramedics arrived, Laman was not breathing and had no pulse. An automated external defibrillator, commonly known as an AED, sat beside her body.
Those details of Laman's sudden death -- attributed to a rarely fatal heart condition -- are contained in a lawsuit her family filed earlier this year against the St. Charles School District and the three St. Charles North officials who tended to Laman.
The suit contends the three staffers properly diagnosed Laman's condition, but did not immediately get a nearby AED and failed to use it for up to 15 minutes between her collapse and when paramedics attempted to revive her -- a decision that ultimately led to Laman's death.
The lawsuit also accuses Franson of telling police that CPR and the AED were attempted after Laman collapsed.
In asking a judge to dismiss the case, the School District argues neither it nor its employees can be held liable because of Illinois' Tort Immunity Act. In the simplest sense, that act protects the actions of and decisions made by school workers and other public employees.
"We feel the School District and all the other defendants will be vindicated in this action," said Northbrook-based Gerard Cook, who represents the St. Charles district.
Laman family attorney Laura DiAndrea-Iversen disagrees, saying provisions in the state's Automated External Defibrillator Act mandate those trained on the devices to use them according to their required training. Simply put: someone certified to use an AED should use it quickly when signs of trouble arise. Not doing so equates to "willful and wanton" conduct, which negates immunity, DiAndrea-Iversen contends.
"The defendants ... knew from their training and knowledge of the AED device that delaying or withholding the use of an AED device for 13 to 15 minutes ... doomed Lauren to death," the lawsuit states.
Life without Lauren
Almost 20 months after Lauren's death, in the midst of a typically long civil case, the Lamans "want to know why things weren't done" and still struggle with their loss. DiAndrea-Iversen recalled a recent e-mail from Mary Laman that said, "I hate life without Lauren."
Across the Fox Valley, dozens of AEDs have popped up in area school districts within the last several years. A 2008 law made them a requirement at all government-run physical fitness facilities, including places such as school football stadiums.
Training of school nurses, physical education teachers and coaches are the norm. Those preparations are rarely tested, with actual uses of AEDs few and far between -- which is viewed as a good thing.
Geneva has 31 AEDs throughout district buildings, with the first arriving in 2004. In Sandwich, each school has at least one AED, with nine total around the district.
Geneva School District Assistant Superintendant Dawn George was not aware of anyone having to use an AED.
"We have not had to use them," Tom Sodaro, the Sandwich School District's safety committee leader, said. "The majority of coaches are trained. Our goal is to have all our PE teachers" trained in how to use them.
Officials in Oswego, which has 27, and West Aurora, which has 37, also reported no known uses of the devices.
Juanita Gryfinski, a school nurse and head of the St. Charles School District's health services department, says AEDs enhance "overall safety" of the district and community. St. Charles has 53 units and more than 200 people trained to use them. Gryfinski has used an AED three times.
"We have used them in emergency situations," she said, adding that was for heart rhythm readings to determine further treatment. "We've not had to use them to deliver electrical conversions."
Routine training
Training on the devices is simple, Sodaro explained, noting it can take as little as 45 minutes to learn how to use them. Typically, the devices have voice or visual prompts directing the user what to do. Some districts combine AED and CPR training because of how often they are used together.
AED technology makes them simple enough to use. "A third-grader could pick it up," the Lamans' attorney DiAndrea-Iversen said bluntly.
The district's dismissal request states the employees "are absolutely immunized from liability ... because the alleged acts or omissions on the part of the defendants involve the exercise of discretion ... even if the exercise of such discretion is abused."
University of Illinois law professor Steve Beckett says immunity laws have been around since at least the state's beginning and provide a higher level of protection for public bodies or employees. If such rules didn't exist, why would anyone work in the public sector, he asked rhetorically.
"It's difficult to sue local government entities and be successful," Beckett said.
But, he points out, the some wiggle room exists because the immunity act doesn't cover willful and wanton conduct. Although simply not using the AED might not rise to that level, he said, going against existing policies could be an entry point.
"That may be a sound argument," Beckett said.
