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.

[Ronin]

Insanity, insanity, insanity...

Where do we get these official idiots?

[knuthom]

Some schools make the kids keep their asthma inhalers in the nurses office. That is idiotic. When you need it, you need it right away. When my daughter needed one, I got a note from the doctor stating that she needed to carry it with her, not leave it in the nurses office.

[Mon]

Good for him! THese charges should be dismissed! I use Albuterol as my rescue inhaler (has to be with me at all times). What idiots, if they had Asthma they would think differently.

[Igraine]

These stories make me so mad I can't see straight. The only effect an asthma inhaler has is to open the breathing tubes back up to their normal width. Why a device that helps people breath normally is "controlled" in the first place is beyond me.

There was a case a few years ago in New Orleans when a high-school girl died because her school wouldn't let her use her asthma inhaler, which was locked in the school nurse's office. As she became more distressed, she asked someone to call an ambulance, but the officials refused because they could not reach her mother on the phone to ask her permission.

Reason #43,947 no child of mine will ever step foot in a public school.

[Mostly_Lurker]

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

If true, the nurse is dangerously incompetent. I carry an albuterol-ventolin inhaler because only the inhaler will relieve my breathing distress when I have an asthma attack. Since my condition is chronic, I need the inhaler every six to eight hours to continue to live.

[The Westerner]

This is outrageous! A collective insanity has descended upon the American populace!

[jwalsh07]

Lunacy gone main stream.

[Doctor Stochastic]

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

Yes. You can't win the War On Drugs without breaking some eggs.

[Sloth]

This is why kids should be allowed to bring guns to school.

BUMP

[donmeaker]

At work a few years ago, a contractor had a stroke. It was recognizable in that his speech was slurred, he walked with a limp, and his lip drooped. I had one of our guys drive him to the hospital (we lived in a small town 30 miles from the hostpital). After I sent them off, I called our safety office to report.

I was reprimanded. I should have had him walk down to the nurses office, and wait there for the ambulance to drive 30 miles out from the hospital, and then the other 30 miles back. Of course before he would be allowed to get in the ambulance, he would be given a quck check, another 15 minutes. I visited him that weekend, and the doctor said that if I had followed the company policy, "Bill" would have had lasting damage.

Well, "Bill" got to the hospital in 20 minutes from when I told people to go. He spend a week in intensive care, with oxygen and on blood thinners. The blood clot in his head dissolved, and he came back to work two months later.

You have to be willing to do the right thing, though Hell stands against you. I would be glad to have a kid like that in my family.

Be Proud!

[Igraine]

Bless you for doing the right thing. It seems that too many people are more interested in following procedure than they are in saving human life.

[henderson field]

Zero tolerance is a Nazi policy.

[foto]

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

Most likely because she ignored the asinine rules and used the borrowed inhaler.

[Frank_2001]

Idiots vote for them, or for those who appoint them.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Agreed. Zero Tolerance is a lousy substitute for rational thinking. Then again, public schools are a lousy place for learning rational thinking.

[headsonpikes]

Omellette bump.

We're building a brave new world - not everyone's going to make it there.

Sacrifices are necessary - it's for the children.

Rules are made to be followed.

[A.J.Armitage]

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.

In other words, he could face the penalty of serial ass-rape for saving a life.

Future generation will think we're barbarians. And they'll be right.

[Slainte]

http://www.conroe.isd.tenet.edu/schools/cchs.htm

Mission Statement: Caney Creek High School is an educational partnership of school, home, and community. We believe that education is a collective, not an individual, enterprise dedicated to providing successful learning experiences for each student.

Well, they're right about one thing, Brandon Kivi is getting a learning experience about the collective.

[Born Conservative]

Freakin' anal retentive school nurse; I guess she forgot the ABC's of Basic Life Support: AIRWAY, BREATHING, and circulation. If you don't have A,B,and C, you don't got a student anymore! Besides, Albuterol is a fairly benign medicine (as far as chance of overdose). I wonder what this clymer would do if a child was having an anaphylactic reaction and there wasn't an order for an Epi Pen, but she had one available. Would she give the Epi without the order, or would she let the kid die because of school policy? I deal with school nurses every day, and I often wonder where in he** they got their licenses...

[ikka]

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

In many criminal cases if you can show you are acting as a "good samaritan" you cannot be charged.