Some time back, there was a news article about a kid who had a severe asthma attack at school. He/she had forgotten his/her inhaler. IIRC, the teacher called for help, and as the kid started turning blue or something, another asthmatic child ran over and told the kid to use her inhaler, so the kid was still breathing when paramedics arrived. The school had a cow. Neither of the kids' parents had a problem with this solution, just the school.

So, what do you do if you have the means to fix a potentially life-threatening problem, but do nothing? Brain death comes in 3-5 minutes, paramedics sometimes take more time to get there due to location.

Has America reached the point where the fear of being sued surpasses keeping an innocent alive?

I offer this question out of curiosity. I know what *I* would do, as I prefer to be able to sleep at night.

Since we have a couple of attorneys here, I thought their insight might be interesting.

Sue

I have posted back & forth with doug, and I will be posting a fairly long post in the near future which will hopefully answer you questions.

Short answer: help them live.

A natural human response to someone in trouble is to try and help. However, using one persons medication to aid another may not be a wise idea. All medications are prescribe based on type of illness, severity, and body size of patient. Not all inhalers are the same and what works for one person could prove dangerous or deadly for another. Case in point, subject A is having chest pains, subject B has Nitro which he takes for chest pain and gives some to subject A. Unknown to subject B is the fact that subject A has used Viagra some four hours before. Both medications are vaso-dialators which dialate blood vessels and cause a drop in blood pressure. The nitro causes a major drop in subject A's blood pressure from which he does not recover. Unless you are trained in the indications/contra-indications of a given drug and know what questions to ask a patient, don't give drugs. In the case of the child with an asthma attack, basic airway support measures until the arrival of medical care would have been a better choice. If you don't already know them, learn them. In addition, it seems pretty irresponsible of the child's parents to have allowed him/her to go school without assuring he/she had their medication.

Most school policies are getting WAY on the wrong side of ridiculous, if not counter-productive, if not dangerous. Parents, teachers, and tax paying citizens need to remember that they are also VOTERS who elect school boards. Tell the elected board what you expect and demand, then vote accordingly... get involved, or don't bi... complain.

Troy

Hopefully the school did not act punitively towards any of the participants. If any punishment or written censure occurred, the parents would probably want to have it rescinded or nullified. Working with the principal, the local superintendent of public instruction, or elected school board, in that order, would be my approach. Bureaucracies do not approve of novel or creative solutions. They require standardized, pre-approved procedures and techniques. Mere oral, unrecorded criticism is probably not worth the bother of a defense. Hiring a lawyer might be indicated, but the advisability of that would depend the gravity of the school's reaction. A truly obnoxious school might require legal action, but of course that would be expensive. If the school is too difficult, switching schools might be a consideration. Conceivably the schools policies may have become so unrealistically intolerant that they may be civilly liable for their irresponsibility in impeding treatment to the children in their care.

In my own family, when we have experienced problems with the schools, my wife (a dietitian with a lot of business management savvy) usually handles and successfully resolves the matters. If it is serious, she holds me in reserve as an implicit threat (of legal action). Alternately, the parents play good cop, bad cop. That can also be effective.

One good thing about living in a representative democracy, is that our governing officials are inclined to be responsive. Otherwise they tend to be voted out of office. Popularity of their actions and constituent service is what keeps them in office.

Although asthma is both frightening and miserable, it is not usually life-threatening. Most asthma inhalant medication are pretty standardized and often over the counter products. The likelihood of an adverse reaction in what I presume was an elementary school student seems remote.

Legal Disclaimer: Obviously this post is not meant to provide legal advice, legal representation or relationship, and none exists or is provided. I am not admitted to practice law in any state other than California and am neither doing nor intending to do so. I limit my practice to civil law, and do not practice criminal law. Anyone wanting legal advice or representation should seek his own lawyer admitted to practice law in the prospective client's jurisdiction. Obviously this discussion is missing a lot of factual information. Moreover, we do not know how accurate the reports actually are. We are assuming that our information correct. We are discussing this matter only for the limited purpose of exploration of survival and campfire topics on this forum.

Anyway, those are my thoughts,

John

Love your disclaimer. That's a keeper.

When I was a kid, all the asthmatics in my class knew exactly what each other was taking - we would compare colours of inhalers, dosage etc. So in the situation described, often the best person to sort it would be the fellow classmate with asthma.

Albuterol is the most commonly prescribed "rescue inhaler". It is very safe, and very effective. It is not, however, over-the-counter. Most likely BECAUSE it is so effective- anybody who needs it really needs to be monitored by a doctor. I would have no problem loaning my inhaler to someone who has an attack, while advising them to see a doctor.

I find it ironic our children suffer a pandemic of asthma conditions, behavioral disorders etc and the world applies bandaid solutions of inhalers and ritalin instead of cleaning up the root causes of worldwide chemical pollutants. It is widely thought the use of lead ceramics led to a decline in roman mental health. I can only guess what drugs or chemicals produced our current crop of Caligulas. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

So much wisdom in so few words... you've done it again Chris.