Laws That Need Changing
In one instance, with a school nurse in Baltimore, Elaine, she had to choose between saving a student’s life or losing her job. She chose the former and subsequently lost her job. What happened? The student was having an asthma attack and began blacking out. Unable to access that student’s medication, she chose to use the inhaler of another student, successfully bringing that student back to consciousness. Three weeks later, she got fired for using another student’s inhaler, despite having saved a student’s life. She shared her story in order to advocate for change:
In October 2018, two students reported another was having difficulty breathing. When I arrived, I found a student in severe distress, gasping for breath. I was told that 9-1-1 had been called, and an ambulance was coming. Someone asked the student, who was known to have asthma, “Where is your inhaler?” It was locked in the gym office, and the coach was unavailable.
The student’s condition rapidly deteriorated. Her respirations became increasingly labored. She lost consciousness. Gasping at 60 respirations a minute, her pulse increased to 124 beats a minute. I then learned that an ambulance hadn’t been called. Sensing an impending disaster, I ordered, “Call one, now!!”
The student’s condition deteriorated. Not knowing when help would arrive, I asked someone to find another student’s inhaler, knowing it would contain the needed medication. When one was found, I administered two puffs, waited, then gave two more. Within minutes, the student’s respirations became less labored.
When the student’s mother arrived, she was grateful that I had given her daughter another student’s inhaler. When the ambulance arrived shortly thereafter, the student had mostly recovered. While I was relieved to have a good outcome, I lost my job weeks later in direct response to my actions that violated official policy. Only then did I realize that a stock inhaler law could have prevented this outcome. I am speaking out now to prevent it from happening to someone else.