Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.
Accounts to help defray medical costs for Speas and Lauzon have been set up at local banks. Donations to the Tabatha Speas fund can be made at any branch of Bank of America. Donations to the Adriana Lauzon fund go can be made at any branch Bank of the West.
"Tabatha told me, 'They shouldn't have let me out. It wasn't time,' " Traci Hart, a registered nurse, recalled Thursday, noting that she had been called to Speas' home in Southern Highlands late Wednesday night to check on her complaints of chest congestion.
After treatment Speas seemed fine and went to her room with her father about midnight to watch a video of the Peter Pan movie "Hook." Seemingly contented, she fell into slumber.
Her grandfather, checking on her a few hours later, held the girl as she died about 3:30 a.m., Hart said. The cause of death was unknown this morning.
The Clark County coroner's office said an autopsy was scheduled for later today.
Speas and her friend, Adriana Lauzon, also 13, were struck by a car as they crossed Shinnecock Hills Avenue near Tucci Street on Oct. 15. Lauzon died Oct. 21 at UMC. The accident resulted in a public outcry to put crosswalks into residential neighborhoods where traffic is heavy.
A candlelight vigil was held for both Speas and Lauzon Thursday night near the site where the car hit them.
Speas, who had been in critical condition after her accident, had been discharged Sunday from University Medical Center but returned late Monday to the emergency room, hospital spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger said. Speas was again released early Tuesday, Persinger said.
Hart said Speas' family had told her they did not have health insurance, that their daughter had come out of a coma on Friday and that she was not given any discharge instructions for follow-up treatment or rehabilitation.
"Tabatha's family asked me to help get her into rehab," Hart said. "There are just too many questions that have to be answered by the hospital."
Persinger said because of doctor-patient confidentiality she could not discuss specifics about Speas' treatment or discharge without first getting permission from her parents.
Attempts to locate Speas' parents Thursday were not successful.
Persinger said all patients are given "the best quality of care" the hospital can provide and that lack of health insurance plays "no role" in the decision to discharge a patient from the Clark County-financed facility.
"If someone is not well enough, they won't be discharged," Persinger said.
Under the hospital's "performance improvement" guidelines, there can be an inquiry into a patient dying so soon after release from the facility, Persinger said, but she could not say whether that would be done in Speas' case.
Other neighbors in Southern Highlands were shocked at Speas' death, given that her prognosis for survival was good. In an interview for a prior Sun story, Michael Speas said the family was "optimistic" about his daughter's recovery because tests showed she did not suffer brain damage.
"She was such a bright young lady and a terrific little girl -- it's a sad loss for our neighborhood," said Christina Fong, whose husband Steven gave Speas first aid moments after the accident.
"This has been just too much sadness for this neighborhood. We just had one funeral to go to and now we'll have another."
Fong said on the night of the accident, her husband, who had once worked in a hospital, covered an unconscious Speas with a blanket to ward off shock and instructed other good Samaritans not to move either child. Steven Fong felt Speas' ankle for a pulse, but it was very faint, Christina Fong said.
Hart recounted Speas' last days, saying that Monday night the teen complained of dizziness, blurry vision and nausea and was taken by her parents to UMC.
On Wednesday afternoon Speas complained of feeling anxiety and went for a walk in the neighborhood, Hart said.
About 10:30 p.m. Wednesday Hart, who teaches nursing at CEI on Corporate Circle in Henderson, said she was called to the Speas' home because Tabatha was anxious and breathing heavily from an apparent bacterial infection.
"We used a vaporizer and gave her her prescription cough medicine, and she calmed down," Hart said. "I did not think her life was in danger because, if I had, I would have without question told them to take Tabatha to the hospital.
"Tabatha went to her room to watch 'Hook.' I told her I would come by on Thursday and spend a couple of hours with her, and she smiled. That's the last time I saw her."
Hart, who had taken charge of a makeshift monument of stuffed animals and cards at the site of the accident, said she had planned to give it to Speas this weekend so that she could begin the grieving process for the loss of Lauzon.
At Canarelli Middle School, 7808 S. Torrey Pines Drive, where both girls were eighth grade students, Principal Kristy Keller said Thursday afternoon, "It has been an hour since I got the news, and I am just in shock. It's just awful."
Keller said between 500 and 600 of the school's 1,269 students since the accident had sought counseling from the school's trained grief counselor and a crisis team from the Clark County School District.
Keller said Speas had not returned to classes since her release from the hospital.
The accident occurred at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, when a westbound 2002 Volkswagen Jetta, driven by Summer Larkin, 24, of Las Vegas, passed a vehicle whose driver had seen the children and slowed, Metro Police said.
Larkin's car hit the girls, throwing them about 50 feet in the air, police said. Helicopters airlifted the girls to UMC.
No charges were filed. That too has angered area residents, who say they have not given up efforts to have more painted crosswalks installed. They say the deaths of the two girls and 15-year-old Ashlee Marie Bicknell, who was killed in an accident Monday in a unmaintained Las Vegas crosswalk, have strengthened their resolve in that matter.
Fong, who has children ages 4 and 6, and neighbor Leila Gallegos, who has a 5-year-old, say they won't let their children play on the sidewalks in front of their homes.
"People speed on these roads all of the time," Gallegos said. "I'll take my child to the (nearby) park, but it's just too dangerous to play in the front yard so close to the street."
Speas was the third teenage girl to die within 16 days from injuries caused by being struck by vehicles in accidents that prompted controversy over crosswalks.
On Monday night Bicknell, a sophomore drama student at Desert Pines High School, was struck by a pickup truck at Bonanza Road and Wardelle Street while en route home from a school play rehearsal. A preliminary finding by Metro Police is that the accident was caused by pedestrian error.
Last year the city of Las Vegas opted not to repaint that crosswalk to encourage pedestrians to use a safer painted crosswalk at 28th Street and Bonanza, where a traffic signal was installed. Residents of that area say they want their painted crosswalk back. State law that says an unpainted crosswalk is just as legal as a painted one.
Bicknell's funeral has been set for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church.
At Speas' and Lauzon's school, Principal Keller declined to discuss the crosswalk issue Thursday, but had previously told the Sun that her students had been reminded to be careful even before the tragedy.
"I'm out there every day crossing the kids," Keller said in an Oct. 22 Sun story. "People in this area ... are going anywhere from 40 to 60 miles an hour. They ignore the flashing signs during school hours."
Shortly after the accident in Southern Highlands, parents and concerned neighbors created a makeshift crosswalk with tape at the accident scene, but Metro Police had them remove it.
Bobby Shelton, spokesman for Clark County's Public Works Department, said a decision is still pending on whether to put additional crosswalks on Shinnecock Hills, which he described as a "major collector street in a residential area" but not a major arterial street like Decatur Boulevard or Flamingo Road.
Shelton said that while he sympathizes with the families of the girls who died and their neighbors who share the loss, the county has to be prudent in where it puts painted crosswalks.
Shelton said sometimes more signs and more lines on the road can distract drivers, creating more of a hazard than existed without the markings.
"You can't just paint lines everywhere on the road because they become so redundant people ignore them," Shelton said, noting that the county follows the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for the placing of crosswalks and other traffic warnings.
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