EMS operators were trying to see if a defibrillator could be accessed to aid Katy teen
By HELEN ERIKSEN
The Houston Chronicle (Texas)
Copyright 2006 The Houston Chronicle
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Emergency dispatchers placed urgent calls to a school early in the morning Oct. 6 as they tried to find a defibrillator after learning a Katy Taylor cross-country team member collapsed, but no one answered, according to an official with the Cypress Creek EMS dispatch unit.
Brad England, the department’s executive director, said dispatch tapes show 911 operators made at least three calls into Taylor High School and a call to the Katy Independent School District Police Department to see if anyone could quickly access an automated external defibrillator (AED) the day Jhonathan Bruda died.
Doctors can’t say for sure that a defibrillator would have restored Bruda’s heart’s normal rhythm. He collapsed after a light workout on his way back to the fieldhouse, about 25 feet from an AED that was locked in a trainer’s office.
But the contents of the tapes reveal the measures dispatchers took to try to locate a device that morning before district personnel reported to work.
“You can hear the operator (on the tapes) giving CPR instructions to the caller and you can hear the operator ask ‘Does anyone know if an AED is around?’ ” said England, who listened to taped portions of the call that track coach Amy Pitzel made to dispatchers.
EMS records show that Pitzel called 911 on her cell phone at 6:17 a.m., triggering a flurry of emergency calls to the school. The calls were recorded on nine different tape entries, England said.
The incident occurred before the school’s normal hours — 7:10 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. — when staff was limited as was access to the athletic trainer’s office where the closest AED was kept.
Tapes reveal AED inquiry
Katy ISD officials originally said the two coaches on the scene had keys to unlock the office where the defibrillator was kept, but a 911 operator never asked for one. However, the dispatch tapes reveal operators did promptly call for an AED to help revive the 16-year-old runner.
Steve Stanford, a district spokesman, when questioned by the Houston Chronicle acknowledged Oct. 13 that the coaches did not have keys and a 911 dispatcher did, in fact, ask Pitzel if an AED was on site. According to Stanford, Pitzel responded, “Yes, but I can’t get to it.”
England said one dispatcher stayed on the phone with Pitzel while others tried to connect with someone at the school to find one of the three AEDs on site.
Stanford said he initially didn’t know about the calls to school personnel. He said officials at the school knew from the very beginning that the coaches did not have keys but they failed to communicate that information to district personnel.
“None of the people there knew we were telling people the coaches had keys” Stanford said.
An autopsy revealed that the cross-country runner died of a congenital heart deformity — aortic stenosis — that caused a severe narrowing of his heart’s main artery. The teen’s father, Juan Bruda, said his son did not have a history of heart problems.
Pitzel’s call was routed to the Cypress Creek EMS, which handles the dispatch and notifies West Harris County EMS if emergency services are needed. Ryan Ratcliff, another coach at the scene, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Bruda until West Harris County EMS arrived at the school at 6:21 a.m.
Pitzel and Ratcliff did not return calls or e-mails Wednesday.
Nobody answered
After listening to excerpts from the tapes, England established that the first call dispatchers made was to the school nurse and another call was made to the school’s front office. Nobody answered the calls and each time the phone rang, the call was answered by a machine or transferred to voice mail. Instead of leaving messages, dispatchers hung up and tried other numbers at the school, England said.
“We tried to exhaust every possibility,” England said.
The 911 dispatchers called the Katy ISD Police Department at 6:24 a.m., and district police arrived at the school at 6:27 a.m. By that time paramedics were already trying to revive the fallen teen. Bruda was put in an ambulance at 6:35 a.m. and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:40 a.m.
Stanford said that outside of normal working hours most employees are not required to be at the school to answer phones. But staff members are on hand to supervise official activities such as practices, meetings and other events, as needed.
AEDs more accessible
In the wake of the calls, the district has not considered adjusting the times personnel report to work, Stanford said. If the emergency would have occurred during normal working hours, 911 would have been able to contact campus personnel in the front office and the nurse’s office, Stanford said.
After Bruda’s death, Katy ISD officials took steps to make AEDs more accessible at all times. The devices are prominently labeled and are kept only in unlocked areas that can easily be seen by staff. Each school has a designated place to store the devices.
“As a district, we will continue to provide the necessary resources that will ensure district personnel are ready to respond to any emergency situation that may occur,” Katy Superintendent Leonard Merrell said in a statement.
Norm Uhl, a spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, said the school system is preparing to supply all 300 of its campuses with two AEDs and train staff how to use them by mid-November.