[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2012/0...f0780202227.txt

MCAS addressing emergency response issues

By Lois Tomaszewski
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012 5:07 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — Michigan City Area Schools officials are reviewing how 911 calls from two schools are routed after a volunteer collapsed in December at Pine Elementary School and later died.

Those efforts include a committee recently convened that included fire departments, law enforcement, 911 dispatching and EMS services in both counties.

For the son of Jody Kline, however, any steps taken to correct an ambulance dispatching delay are too little, too late.

Kline died Dec. 16, four days after suffering cardiac arrest in the school’s front office, where she worked in the afternoon with the Boys & Girls Club.

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School staff did all they could, including calling 911, administering first aid and CPR as MCAS policy dictates, Associate Superintendent Xavier Botana said. It took an ambulance 20 minutes to arrive on scene.

“Why did this have to happen?,” Patrick Kline wrote in a letter to The News-Dispatch. “The La Porte County ambulance could have been at Pine School in less than 10 minutes after the 911 call.

“The school is right down the street from an ambulance station.”

Pine School is in Porter County, but part of MCAS. When the 911 call was placed, it was routed to La Porte County, Botana said. The call was transferred to the Porter County 911 system and an ambulance dispatched from there.

“Despite the best efforts of the Pine School staff, (my mother) had to be shocked with an AED,” Patrick wrote. “She went more than 10 minutes without oxygen to the brain.”

Judy Kline was taken to Franciscan St. Anthony Health in Michigan City and placed on life support.

“With the prospect of no normal recovery due to significant brain damage, she was taken off life support,” her son wrote.

To make sure any unnecessary delay in emergency response will not be a future concern, MCAS has been taking steps to review the situation.

“We are still working on getting agreements between different agencies for first responders in La Porte and Porter counties,” Botana said. “There were no interagency agreements.”

An interagency agreement would allow La Porte County or Porter County to respond to a situation in the neighboring county. Without this, emergency responders are limited by county boundries. When the agreements are in place, if a medical or other emergency happens at Pine School, resources in both counties will be dispatched. Whomever is closest will respond, Botana said.

“This is a situation not unique to just the school,” he said.

One additional problem unrelated to what happened Dec. 12 to Judy Kline also has been resolved.

When any school in the MCAS system called 911, the identification displayed to dispatchers was the administration offices instead of the school. If the 911 call was disconnected, dispatchers would only have the administration office number and not the actual location of the emergency. Botana said the phone service provider is making the changes within the phone system.

MCAS also is reviewing the situation at Springfield Elementary School. The school is located outside city limits, Botana said.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2012/0...b6592030026.txt

MCAS takes much-needed step to get emergency agreements

Published: Friday, January 27, 2012 5:07 PM CST
Michigan City Area Schools are taking a proactive and much-needed review of how emergency calls from two of its schools are routed after a school volunteer suffered cardiac arrest at Pine Elementary, and an ambulance did not arrive for 20 minutes.

School officials called 911, administered first aid and CPR, but the volunteer, Jody Kline, died Dec. 16, four days after the incident.

Kline had been placed on life support. “With the prospect of no normal recovery due to significant brain damage, she was taken off life support,” her son wrote in a letter to the News-Dispatch.

Even though it is part of the Michigan City school system, Pine School is located in Porter County. When the 911 call was placed, it was routed to La Porte County, and then transferred to the Porter County 911 system where an ambulance was dispatched.

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However, Kline’s son contends that the La Porte County ambulance could have been at the school in fewer than 10 minutes as an ambulance station is down the street from the school.

The school system is seeking interagency agreements between first responders, including fire departments, law enforcement, 911 dispatch and EMS in La Porte and Porter counties to make sure a similar situation does not occur again.

By putting the agreement in place, in an emergency at Pine School, resources in both counties will be sent, but whoever is closest will be the first responder to the scene.

And, it turns out that another school might have the same situation. Springfield School is inside La Porte County, but outside the Michigan City city limits.

Getting this resolved now is important for the safety of everyone at the two schools. We commend the school system for reviewing the situation and putting the agreements in place.