Teenager In Trouble In Inhaler Incident (Gives inhaler to asthma sufferer; gets expelled)

KPRC-TV/DT Houston ^ | 10.8.03

[mhking]

A teenager was disciplined for sharing medication used to treat asthma, but he said it saved his girlfriend's life, News2Houston reported Wednesday.

Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol.

Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office.

Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler.

"I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said.

"It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan act," Ferguson said.

But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police.

The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.

The mothers of both teenagers are angry.

"My son will not go to jail. This is ridiculous," said Theresa Hock, Kivi's mother. "I believe he shouldn't be punished at all because he was helping her. She was in distress."

"If he hadn't helped her, she would have passed out or died or something because her asthma's been really bad this year," said Sandra Ferguson, Andra's mother.

The school principal said he couldn't do anything about it since Kivi not only broke school rules, but also allegedly violated state law.

"It's simply a matter that it's classified as a dangerous drug. It's an inhaler form, but yet, if it had been in pill form or any other, it's still classified as a dangerous drug," said Greg Poole, the Caney Creek principal.

"Would Caney Creek had want Andra to have died rather than my son to help her?" Hock said.

Poole said the nurse never considered Andra to be in a life-threatening situation.

The school district will hold a hearing on the matter Friday.

[PushinTin]

Albuteral is most definitely NOT a dangerous drug. Epinephrine definitely is!! In respiratory therapy epinephrine is rarely used due to the numerous side effects. Thats why albuteral was invented. Mainly Beta 2 stimulation only (bronchial dilatation). Very little to no stimulation of Alpha or Beta 1 receptors (increase heart rate or vasoconstriction). The nurse on hand should have known this and I would definitely be asking what was her major malfunction!! Oh don't let my name fool you I was a CRTT for seven years prior to my current employment.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

In my district, the kids get to keep their inhalers with them.

[coloradan]

That appears to be the case in this district as well, note that the boyfriend had his own and loaned it to his girlfriend; his charges were associated with the transfer, not possession. How would your district handle someone who forgot their inhaler, like this girl did on this day?

[ArrogantBustard]

This is one instance where a lawyer rabidly threatening the principal,

Lawyers are like a pack of slavering attack dogs. I wouldn't want to associate with them regularly, but when you need them there's no substitute for a really big, mean, nasty one...

[Chancellor Palpatine]

A minor scolding accompanied by a wink, no discipline at all. There used to be a much stronger policy, but a girl died after a food allergy set in, so it was modified.

[ladylib]

If the entire student body walked out, the school's goon squad would round them up and arrest them.

Perhaps it would be better if parents of children who had life-threatening illnesses removed their kids from the school. Their children are in danger and the administration will hide behind policy before they do the right thing. The only people who care about their children are the parents. "It's for the children" is only a slogan made up the Hildebeasts of the world to control you and your kids.

It would also be a good idea, I think, if parents remember that one wrong move by their kid (which was at one time handled on an individual basis, but isn't anymore) could doom their child's future forever, such as in this case. The kid now has an arrest record. Even if the charges are dismissed, the kid has an arrest record. Try to get into one of the military academies with an arrest record.

Think twice before you enroll your kid in a school with idiotic zero tolererance/zero brains policies and idiotic government lackey administrators who will do everything in their power to save their asses even if it means screwing your kid over.

TOO MANY STUPID PEOPLE HAVE TOO MUCH POWER TO RUIN YOUR KID'S LIFE FOREVER. AVOID SCHOOLS WITH ZERO TOLERANCE/ZERO BRAINS POLICIES AT ALL COSTS!

[r9etb]

From the article: "Ferguson said she forgot ...

Missed that -- thanks.

[dr4gey]

My son had athsma and let other players on his team who had athsma use his inhaler when they forgot theirs or ran out of medicine. It was no big deal in our school.

Some school teachers (administrators included) have no common sense whatsoever.

[Born Conservative]

Often they are merely LPN's with two years of junior college.

LPN's (at least in Pennsylvania) usually attend a LPN school, and do not receive college credits. RN's are trained either through a "diploma school", junior college, or 4 year college.

many of the RN's I've had privilege to work with were not the brightest bulbs in the drawer...just average to slightly above average in intelligence. They had very narrow understanding of medical issues, despite...or perhaps because of...their nurses training.
 

Where did YOU work? I can say that when I graduated from nursing school, most of those who were not "the brightest bulbs in the drawer" were weeded out before we took our boards.

I agree that there are a lot of school nurses that are policy wonks, and put a priority on paper work over patient care. Surprisingly, many school nurses don't have Pediatric experience. I would like to say, though, that there are good school nurses, as well as good LPN's.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[Teacher317]

CYA for the moron nurse.

I can see the School Board rewarding her for reporting the violation while making the eroic stand of NOT physically preventing the girl from using the inhaler. She was SO wise and brave!

[freeeee]

If the entire student body walked out, the school's goon squad would round them up and arrest them.

Fine. Let them incite a riot, and get the issue yet more attention. Free people had better expect to face a lot more than a school's goon squad if they expect to stay free. The sooner government learns we'll play hardball right along with them, the better. This is the type of spine required, and Americans had better start to assert it right now:

Perhaps it would be better if parents of children who had life-threatening illnesses removed their kids from the school.

Even better, have everyone pull their kids from public school.

Try to get into one of the military academies with an arrest record.

Why should one bother to make the sacrifice of serving in the military to defend a country with rules like this? The biggest threat to our liberty comes from our own government. Joining the army won't help in that fight. The real fight is to be had at the ballot box.

[Teacher317]

My significant other is a nursing professor at a Div I-A university. She personally testifies about the appallingly low quality of students, and its continued decline for years. However, as the trend to hold nurses more liable (since doctors can affod better lawyers), giving them higher degrees of responsibility, and keeping their pay rather low, those who possess higher intelligence and betters consciences are simply going elsewhere... add in the fact that the unions are looking to make nursing their next playground to destroy, and you're looking at some real trouble in the near future.

[SarahW]

In Virginia LPN's usually get their training through community college courses, which include hands-on clinical "service work".

RN's get their "letters" in similar fashion to Pennsylvania.

Don't get me wrong, I've known *brilliant* nurses, who chose nursing over an M.D. ER/trauma nurses, and nurses with other specialized training are among the most impressive individuals I've met in a lifetime.

We might quibble over the definition of a dullard, you at least need a work ethic and average to slightly above average brains to get through nursing school. That said,
nurses I've known were , and their knowlege of medicine was suprisingly (to me) narrow and shallow.

In general, their thinking was not nuanced, to put it most kindly.

The nurses I worked with were not dumb as rocks...just limited in the depth and breadth of their understanding. They might simply have been out of their element, for they were being asked to contribute to insurance and medical-legal decisions.

[SarahW]

Absolutely true. The best and brightest move on to more satisfying and lucrative careers.

[Cooter]

I would recommend two inhalers per student - one to carry and one stowed in the nurses office.

[dread78645]

but nevertheless I think that albuterol can possibly be dangerous if misused.

The LD50 is around 250 times the amount you'd get from a normally prescribed metered-dose inhaler. You'd probably die of CO₂ poisoning long before you could huff 250 times.

It is "dangerous" because it is delivered by an inhaler; Since the state can't tell the difference between Albuterol and Butyl-nitrate in the inhaler, they'll just ban all inhalers.

It's "dangerous" because it's inconvenient for the bureaucrats ...

[moyden2000]

Every educrat is a gestapo thug.

I'm so proud.

[brianl703]

They're managers who couldn't hack it in the private sector.

[brianl703]

They are educated beyond their intelligence.