Not only was he denied food as punishment and subjected to a fatal basket hold, he was denied his emergency inhaler.
Boy's pleas for aid denied
Inhaler withheld, restrained teen died
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
[email protected], JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/07/05
A 13-year-old Douglas County boy who died after being restrained at a camp for troubled youngsters asked counselors for his asthma inhaler while he was held down, but no one gave it to him, state records show.
A Department of Human Resources report on the April 20 incident said Travis Parker asked for his inhaler during the first 10 to 15 minutes of the restraint, which lasted about an hour and a half. But because the boy was not wheezing or showing signs of an asthmatic attack, camp counselors said, they did not provide him with it, the report said.
(ENLARGE)
Travis Parker, 13, went limp while being restrained at a state-run therapeutic camp. Counselors' reports say he had been belligerent until then.
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Travis went limp during the restraint and counselors could not feel his pulse, the records show. He died the next day at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, after being taken off life support.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident, which occurred at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp, an outdoor therapeutic program operated by the DHR in the North Georgia mountains. The results of an autopsy are pending.
On Friday, the boy's family made their first public statement since his death.
"The family of Travis Parker is devastated and outraged by his passing at such a tender age and in such a horrendous manner," said the statement provided by attorney Michael Tyler.
The boy's grandmother, Golden Griffin, who had been raising Travis, is in a state of "profound shock and grief," the statement said.
"The family of Travis Parker expected that at the Appalachian Wilderness camp, Travis would receive nurturing and support," the statement said. "Instead, sadly it appears the young Travis Parker received brutality and death."
The DHR file on the boy, obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the state Open Records law, contains a detailed account of the incident compiled by Sarah Hopper, consumer protection manager for the agency's North Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. The account is based on interviews with counselors involved in the incident and children who witnessed it.
The report says that one counselor, a certified wilderness emergency medical technician, "saw no indication of an asthmatic attack so did not break the hold in order to give Travis his inhaler."
"He was laughing, screaming and yelling. He had a history of asking for his inhaler when in a hold. He was not wheezing."
Counselors told Hopper that the boy had used his inhaler only once since he had begun the camp two months before.
Dr. Amy Hirsh, of the Peachtree Allergy and Asthma Clinic in Atlanta, would not comment on the incident specifically, but said: "Untrained medical professionals should not make a judgment call on whether a patient needs his or her rescue inhaler or not. If a child asks for a rescue inhaler, they should be given it immediately without questioning whether they need it or not."
Ten children witnessed the boy's restraint, the DHR file said. Some of the boys who were there said that when Travis went limp the counselors said, "He is playing the dead fish game, he's faking."
Counselors, who provided handwritten accounts of the incident, say they repeatedly checked to ensure the boy was being restrained correctly. He continued to violently resist, they said.
The boy was placed in a "full basket restraint," a separate incident report by the state Department of Juvenile Justice said. He was held face down on the ground. His arms were crossed in front of him and held from behind by one counselor, the incident report said. He was forced to the ground, where another counselor held his legs and another counselor held his hips, the report said.
The juvenile justice agency doesn't allow the method of face-down restraint used by the counselors because it can restrict breathing.
One counselor wrote that he checked Travis' breathing and circulation several times during the restraint. At one point, he said, another counselor tried to remove a rock that Travis said was hurting his head. The boy bit his hand, the counselor said.
Another counselor said in his account that a blanket was placed under Travis to make him more comfortable during the hold.
At 11 p.m., he said, the boy was still fighting.
At 11:30 p.m., another counselor reported, "Travis stops responding and is released from restraint."
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:4s ... p%22&hl=enThis one claims he had a 'history' of asking for his inhaler when he didn't need it. :roll:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledg ... 591143.htm