Posted on 12/15/2005 10:51:26 AM PST by Xenophobic Alien
DENVER - A family is suing the Cherry Creek Mall, claiming a failure to respond with an automatic defibrillator allowed their daughter to die.
Additional Resources... 9NEWS reporter Paul Johnson talks with Memory's parents about their daughter and their lawsuit. 9NEWS 10 p.m. Dec. 14, 2005.
Eighteen-year-old Memory Rollins of Denver was working at American Eagle Outfitters in the mall two years ago when she went into cardiac arrest.
Rollins was an active teen; a dancer and a model. However, because of an electrical problem with her heart called Long QT Syndrome, she had a pacemaker.
Although doctors thought it unlikely, Rollins collapsed while at work in 2003. There were five automatic defibrillators in the mall, but no security guards brought one to help her, according to Patrick Rollins, Memory's father.
"I don't have my daughter, and I feel that there was a good chance she would have survived this episode," Patrick says.
The defibrillators are designed to detect when someone is in cardiac arrest and deliver a shock to restart their heart. They've become standard in many workplaces and public facilities.
The Rollins are also asking why, if the mall went to the trouble of buying the machines, they were not marked and stored in a way the public could access them.
A spokesperson for Cherry Creek Mall said he cannot comment on the case while it is before the courts.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to the family," mall General Manager Nick LeMasters said.
The Rollins family says they know they can't bring Memory back, but they hope they can make it so such an incident will never happen at the mall again.
why didn't someone try smelling-salts?
In this case? Prescient.
why didn't someone try smelling-salts?
Umm, you're not serious are you?
My sentiments exactly. Well said.
"What kind of name is Memory anyway?
In this case? Prescient."
Not in the least bit funny. Stupid in fact.
This is always the problem with technology, once in place, everyone feels they have an automatic right to the use of it.
Even in hospital settings, code blue cases are often lost due to distance from crash carts and the inevitable confusion surrounding the victim's sudden collapse.
The difib is not a magic machine. It doesn't work like on TV, where you just shock 'em back to life. It's slightly better than nothing, but not much.
This father's belief that his daughter would be alive if only the mall had been quicker to respond with the defib is not based in reality. Five units in a place as big as a shopping mall means you are talking about a ten minute response time, even if everything goes perfectly.
I know it sounds harsh, but shocking that girl after 10 minutes down was not going to make much of a difference.
Tough room.
Hollywood and TV medical shows have helped to develop the myth that cardiac arrest patients are easily saved with a defibrilator. I remember reading once that they only work 10% of the time, and that's in a hospital with trained professionals.
Her pacemaker was either malfunctioning or firing repeatedly already, there is no guarantee that a contact defibrillator would have restored normal rhythmn.
As evidenced by the Detroit Redwing incident, sometimes it is difficult to tell siezure from the body's reaction to a similar heart problem.
And Malls are full of crazy acting kids and chaos these days.
There will never be the perfect safety net. Although, I am filing a law suit over the threat of the end of my life looming somewhere over the horizon.
Good questions. And would someone need special training to use one on a person with a pacemaker?
Scumbag family.
I agree wholeheartedly.
My point was that if they claim a defibrillator would have solved the problem then they themselves bear greater blame for her not having one used on her than the mall does.
"Please forgive my ignorance about this but wouldn't using a defibrillator on someone with a pacemaker be just as bad for them as doing nothing? Would the pacemaker make any effort counterproductive to a defibrillator?"
Technically, I do not have an answer for you. All I know is that when I was taught to use AEDs (automated external defibrillators), we were instructed to not place the AEDs electrodes on top of pacemakers or internal defibrillators. So evidently (at least up until a year ago when I was instructed) you could conceivably use AEDs on people who had pacemakers or internal defibrillators.
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