Photo: Carmon Funeral Home Obituary
A five-year-old boy in Connecticut died days after teachers believed he was "playing dead" when he collapsed during school recess, a new lawsuit alleges.
According to the Washington Post, the parents of 5-year-old Romeo Pierre Louis filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the town of West Hartford and its board of education on the anniversary of his April 2022 collapse at Charter Oak International Academy.
Louis was playing freeze tag during recess when he suddenly collapsed. According to the lawsuit, teachers at the elementary school thought the boy was "playing dead" and left him unconscious for roughly eight minutes before administering aid.
The lawsuit alleges that teachers could have saved Louis' life had they acted sooner.
"By the time the teachers ... realized that Romeo was not playing dead and needed emergency medical treatment — it was too late, and Romeo's life could no longer be saved," the lawsuit states.
According to police, other children playing with Louis thought the boy was pretending to sleep. After one child reported that Louis was acting strangely, teachers checked on the 5-year-old and found him without a pulse. At that point, he was taken to the school nurse, who tried to resuscitate him using chest compressions and a defibrillator.
Louis was later transported to Connecticut Children's Hospital where, despite "significant and extensive efforts to save his life," he died two days after the collapse of Brugada syndrome, a rare disease that causes irregular heart rhythms.
According to the Mayo Clinic, most people who suffer from the rare heart disease are unaware that they have it. Louis and his parents were among that majority, their lawyer, Michael L. Chambers Jr., said.
Chambers told the Washington Post that the child's death was "completely and totally avoidable."
"As any parent who every morning drops their child off at school, there's a certain level of trust we put in teachers' and administrators' hands. And that trust was absolutely broken," he said.
In a statement, Andrew Morrow, the interim superintendent of West Hartford Public Schools, gave his condolences to the family.
"The death of a child is a devastating and unimaginable loss, and our thoughts are with the family and friends of Romeo Pierre Louis," Morrow said. "This tragedy has deeply affected the Charter Oak International Academy community."
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