Lack of CPR training heart of civil trial

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000 | 11:52 a.m.

George and Ruth Curtis cried as their civil trial opened against the Clark County School District and three physical education teachers they hold partially responsible for their 13-year-old daughter's death.

Kimberly Curtis died in 1995 from an undiagnosed heart defect at White Middle School in Henderson after collapsing during a gym class. Her parents say none of the teachers present knew how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"They sat there with this little girl dying. They sat there while this little girl turned blue," said the family's attorney Robert Murdock in opening statements Wednesday.

Murdock said besides not having adequate CPR training, the teachers should have been equipped with radios to call paramedics. But they were restricted by school district policy from making a 911 call without the school nurse authorizing it, Murdock said.

An attorney defending the school district and the three teachers said the district hired teachers who had all the first-aid training required by the state. Attorney Blair Parker said neither the teachers' actions nor district policies contributed to the girl's death.

Parker said the teachers did not initiate CPR because they noticed the child was breathing. Once a school nurse was summoned, she immediately started CPR.

In response to the lawsuit, the school district brought the state of Nevada into the case as a third party defendant, meaning the state might have to share liability costs if jurors find in the Curtis family's favor.

An attorney for the state told the jury that the district's move to bring the state into the trial was an attempt to shift blame, and that if the teachers did something wrong, the school district is liable, not the state.

The Curtises have been working for five years to make sure what happened to their daughter never happens again.

Shortly after Kimberly's death, the family began working with their local state legislator to write a law requiring Nevada school districts to have plans for all physical education personnel to learn CPR.

Gov. Kenny Guinn signed what's known to the Curtises as "the Kimberly law" into effect in July 1997.