Among the opinions released by the Supreme Court of Texas today was a case out of North Richland Hills, in which the city was sued by the parents of a 12-year-old girl who died as a result of sudden cardiac arrest:
Sarah Friend collapsed on July 14, 2004 while standing in line for the “Green Extreme” water slide at NRH2O, a city-owned water park in North Richland Hills. City employees responded with oxygen masks and other airway equipment, but did not retrieve an Automatic External Defibrillator device (AED) from a storage closet elsewhere on the park grounds. Â As a result, Sarah did not receive defibrillation until twenty-one minutes after her initial collapse, when the city fire department arrived. She was rushed to the hospital but could not be revived, and she died shortly after noon that day. Â The Friends allege that had the city employees used the AED on Sarah immediately, prior to using the airway equipment, the device would have saved her life.
The court was considering the question of whether the Friends even had the right to sue the city. State law grants local governments wide immunity from liability suits, and North Richland Hills argued that there was no cause for an exemption to be granted.
The law provides for such an exemption if the government causes injury or death “by use  of tangible personal or real property.”  So the key word became the meaning of “use.” Since the Friends’ case was based on arguing the city’s negligence in not using a device at all (rather than using a device improperly), the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the appeals court and found in favor of the city, dismissing the Friends’ suit.
You can read more about Sarah here, and find out about donating to the organization established by her parents to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in kids, the Sarah Friend Heart Foundation.
7 comments
This is infuriating. I hope the reasoning was the continued application of tax dollars to purposes that would help everyone in NRH; maybe to teaching waterpark employees some better first aid???
This atrocious! Once again this states that the govrnment is for governmet. The Government was created by the people for the people. Somewhere along the line our government has become a dictatorship. They take our money and then they take our freedom. They require us to live as we are told, but they are exempt from the same rules and regulations. When the government is exempt from the death of a child, the end of our country is indeed near. We have turned from “In God we Trust” to “The Government Shall Rule”!
If the city bought a Defibrillator, then the city employees should have KNOWN it was there.. AND how to use it…. This dicision is wrong!
It is a total shock that the Friend case is dismissed. Shame on Texas. Sarah would be alive today
if the City employees did their job. These incompetent city employees were teaching life guard training? Hello. They were too stupid to save Sarah! Several AED’s on the property and yet not one of these idiots
pulled one out to save her life. Yes mam, You fools are responsible for her death. The Friend Family
continues to work hard to save the lives of others like their Sarah. God bless the Friend Family.
This is horrific! I knew precious Sarah…. My heart breaks for this verdict. I truly believe that the Lord Almighty is our final judge. I also believe that those responsble for not giving life saving help to Sarah…will have to answer to Christ on “judgement day”!
I think condemning the city and the water park employees is a bit harsh. Saying that these kids will have to “answer to Christ” is just ridiculous. These life guards are teenagers, 16, 17 year old kids who aren’t exactly trained to deal with sudden cardiac arrest. Should they have grabbed the AED? In a perfect world they would have. But again, these ‘life guards’ are kids making minimum wage who can’t be expected to react like seasoned veterans when a child drops dead right in front of them. You people need to calm down with the hysterics and think rationally about this. This poor girls situation was tragic, but condemning the poor kids who tried their best is stupid. And condemning the city doesn’t make much sense either. It was a bad situation from the beginning and her condition precluded any positive outcome, no matter what care she may or may not have been given.
All the above, except for Nobody, are ignorant of the law and ignorant of the facts and biased. DaLana do you really think you’re a Christian with that judgmental attitude? You best be thinking about your own salvation before you start going on about those kids who did the best they could and were crushed when they learned Sarah didn’t make it. Nancy Smoot, were you there? How do you KNOW Sarah would be alive today, people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die in ERs every day, just feet away from resuscitation equipment and trained emergency medicine specialists. You can’t make that statement unless you just want to be a judgmental jerk like DaLana. Did any of you heroes think that the MOST likely outcome had the Friend’s suit prevailed would be the REMOVAL of AEDs? You can’t be sued over something you don’t have. All of you need to take a hard look at yourselves before you go off on teenagers doing the best job they can. You’re disgusting.