In September 2006, 9-year-old Juan Loera choked on a turkey corn dog as he sat with classmates at LaPorte’s Haillman Elementary School.

A custodian rushed over to help him. So did nine other staff members. They tried the Heimlich maneuver. Then a police officer arrived and tried the maneuver. Paramedics came and removed the obstruction, but Juan eventually died in a hospital.

On Friday, a jury in LaPorte Circuit Court awarded a $5 million lawsuit against the LaPorte Community School Corp. The attorneys who filed that suit in behalf of Juan’s mother, Maria Rosales, claimed the staff was inadequately trained to deal with the emergency.

“We feel our staff did everything possible,” LaPorte Superintendent Judith A. DeMuth said Monday.

Calling the death a “most tragic event,” she said, “Our hearts and thoughts are with that family.”

Kenneth J. Allen, head of the law firm that filed the suit, said he doesn’t fault the staff who tried to help the boy. Rather, he argues that the school had a plan for dealing with emergencies like this but didn’t implement it. Specifically, he said, the staff lacked training in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.

The school district won’t have to pay more than $500,000 because of the state’s limit on what may be collected from a government entity, Allen said. The school district has 30 days in which to file an appeal, and DeMuth said it’s too soon to talk about that.

But the money isn’t the point, Allen said: “If we can prompt one school to implement these plans in the 92 counties of Indiana, then we will have done what we set out to do.”

Some local school districts report that they don’t have a plan for cafeteria emergencies, but they do make training available to their staffs.

Juan’s choking death in 2006 “increased our awareness,” said John Hutchings, director of student services for Elkhart Community Schools. It caused district officials to look and ensure that at least some of its food service employees were trained in the Heimlich maneuver in each cafeteria, he said.

“We think we’re pretty well covered,” he said.

CPR training is required of Elkhart’s night custodians, who are in the buildings when adults from the community play in basketball and volleyball leagues, he said. But training in CPR and use of a defibrillator is available to any other employees who want it, Hutchings said.

After the death, LaPorte school officials said they’d ensure there was someone in each school building who was trained in the Heimlich maneuver.

“We are going to continue to make student safety a top priority,” DeMuth said. “We’ve continued our training in life-saving techniques.”

In January, a kindergarten teacher and a program assistant helped a teacher’s aide who was choking at Horizon Elementary School. The pair used their emergency training to dislodge whatever blocked the woman’s breathing, said Teresa Carroll, spokeswoman for the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp.

About a year ago, the lead cook at Battell Elementary School did the Heimlich maneuver on a kindergartner who was choking on a chicken nugget, The Tribune reported. In the article, a School City of Mishawaka official said all food service workers attend a meeting where they see a demonstration of choking responses.

Since 2007, Indiana law has required that newly licensed teachers be certified in CPR and Heimlich maneuver, though it doesn’t require that for license renewals. The training for both methods is typically done together. CPR certification lasts for two years.

Neither PHM nor the South Bend Community School Corp. require CPR or Heimlich maneuver training of their cafeteria staffs. With such large school districts, officials there had a hard time assessing how many staff at each school are trained.

But PHM trains about 60 staff members a year in the procedures, Carroll said. All child care workers are trained in CPR, Carroll said of the schools with child care. Each PHM school has a safety team, and several of their members are CPR trained, she said.

South Bend offers training twice a month to any staff who want it, said communications director Sue Coney; employees pay $10 for the four-hour class.

In the John Glenn school district, all five kitchen workers at Walkerton Elementary School are trained in CPR, along with the custodian and two secretaries, said Tim Davis, principal of the school with 480 students.

Staff writer Joseph Dits:
jdits@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6158