The discovery in a wrongful death lawsuit in Kentucky, where the parents of a high school athlete claimed the school, diocese, and the hospital were negligent, is leading to some interesting details.
First the background: Matthew Mangine was participating in a practice on June 16, 2020 when the incident occurred. His parents alleged in the lawsuit that there were many automatic external defibrillator (AED) devices on-site, none of which were used on Mangine after he collapsed.
Furthermore, the parents noted that the head coach, athletic trainer, and athletic director were not trained properly on how to use an AED. The fault for this, according to the complaint, rested with the defendants – St. Henry High School, the Diocese of Covington, and St. Elizabeth Medical Center, which employed the athletic trainer.
Specifically, the parents alleged that the coaches and trainers there when Mangine collapsed “were not equipped to deal with the situation present by Matthew’s cardiac arrest, due in large part to the failures of the defendants to adequately and properly prepare them for such emergencies.”
The complaint further states that “for many years, St. Henry and the Diocese have been operating their sports program, in conjunction with St. Elizabeth, in blatant and serious violation of the state law, KHSAA policies and the applicable standard of care.”
The “violations” mentioned by the parents centered on the creation of an Emergency Action Plans (EAP) and training on AEDs.
“For well over a decade, the standard of care mandates that schools should have an Emergency Action Plan,” according to the complaint. The complaint also noted that the EAP was not specific to the venue of the practice field, as required.
Discovery Revelations
Since the lawsuit was first reported in these pages, the coaches and athletic trainer at the school revealed that they were in fact trained on how to use an AED and knew what the signs were for sudden cardiac arrest in athletes.
However, they said the AEDs were not secured after Mangine collapsed because the EAP did not list their locations on the school’s campus.
Furthermore, media reports suggested that the athletic trainer, Mike Bowling, did not have the necessary keys to access an AED, which was 50 yards from where the athlete collapsed.
KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett has also made a few headlines, confirming that if the school didn’t notify his association that it did not have an EAP, that would be a violation of the organization’s self-reporting policy.
In a media interview, Tackett noted that it would be “a technical requirement” for the school “to certify that they’ve got them. I mean, at some point — there’s no way with 286 high schools and that many more middle schools, you’re not going to have an army of people going out and checking.
He went on to give an example.
“It’s no different (then) an academic rule (we have had) for years. We don’t check transcripts. At some point, it is self-policing. It is. They’ve done it. They know the risk of not doing it. They know the liability of not doing it, and their peers are watching, so there is that accountability.”
