The mother of a 7-year-old girl who died after collapsing at school has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school.

Destinie Martinez was studying at Dona Ana Elementary School. She suffered from truncus arteriosus, a heart condition in which a single large blood vessel carries blood to the body and the lungs. It is characterized by shortness of breath, and the patients can suffer from high blood pressure. In many instances, heart failure can be seen. Destinie had undergone surgery for her condition, and her mother Candi Martinez, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit, had informed the authorities at the school about her daughter’s delicate medical condition.

On the morning of November 5, 2007, Destinie had been feeling unwell. Her mother sent her to school with a note asking that she be excused from physical education class. It’s not clear why the school allowed Destinie to participate in a physical activity, when the parents had made it known that she was ill, but they made her participate in physical education. Within minutes, the girl had begun to vomit, and had to be excused from the class. She was made to sit down and a few moments later she collapsed.

The school was apparently not yet done bungling. The situation called for emergency medical care, and instead of approaching it like the serious matter it was, school authorities continued with their ineptitude. They called the wrong parents to ask for permission to transfer Destinie to hospital. By the time they finally managed to get their act together and call Destinie’s parents, valuable time had been lost. She was taken to Mountain View Regional Medical Center. All efforts proved unsuccessful, and Destinie died at the hospital.

The lawsuit alleges that many errors we made in the kind of emergency response that Destinie received from the school. It also claims that she should have not been participating in physical activity.

Obviously, the school was tawdry in its response to Destinie’s condition. For now, the school has not yet responded to the lawsuit, but answers will be expected as to why the girl was allowed to be in the sun taking part in physical education class, when her mother had informed the teacher about her condition on that day.

How could precious time have been lost calling the wrong parents? How difficult can it be to have on emergency file the contact information about a child at your school who has a rare heart disorder? How many kids at the school had that disorder? Presumably not many. The authorities must have known that with a sick child in their school, there might be need for emergency medical attention some day, and they were ill-prepared. There was enough incentive for the school authorities to have been extra careful in this case. Instead, they seem to have been profoundly negligent, and a little girl has paid for it with her life.